Karachi
As he draws a picture of a house, thirteen-year-old Abdullah flashes a bright smile. Using colour pencils, he highlights the edges of the drawing — something that stands close to his heart.
In a large hall of a government college at Razzaqabad relief camp, far away from the grassy fields of Sindh, Abdullah, hailing from Jacobabad district, tries to trace back his roots. “This is my home. The house where I played with my friends,” he said.
Abdullah is one of the 400 children who started taking classes from Saturday with the help of an NGO at ‘Abdul Razzaq Gabol Government Boys Degree College’, now known as Razzaqabad relief camp.
A volunteering teacher, Khalid Hashmani, said that on the first day, they gave health education and discussed the importance of hand washing and later gave drawing classes. The children were asked to recite poems and they were given gifts as a token of encouragement.
As there was a problem of ‘indiscipline’ owing to the large number of children in one hall, the classes ended soon after the distribution of gifts. Hashmani said that they plan to teach 100 children in shifts from Monday. For this purpose, 12 flood affected intermediate pass youths have also been recruited as teachers who would be provided Rs5,000 honorarium per month with the help of Deputy Speaker Sindh Assembly Shehla Raza. AIRD, an NGO has also arranged uniforms for around 1,000 children. The volunteers were also seen playing with children and singing patriotic songs there.
Meanwhile, around 300-400 children of relief camp established in ‘Gul Hasan Lashari Education Complex’ at Gizri would start taking classes from Monday, according to Headmaster Mukhtiar Ahmed.
He told the visiting team of journalists that they have reserved four rooms there where 24 teachers would start taking classes. He said they have given homework to around 700-800 children studying in 11 schools of the Complex whose classes hopefully would resume after Eid. There were 850 flood affectees living at the Gizri relief camp.
During a visit of the media team arranged by the Flood Relief Monitoring Committee Karachi to the Gizri, Razzaqabad and the Pakistan-Swedish Institute of Technology relief camps, an overwhelming demand of the affectees was that they need money as Eid was approaching.
“When you visit our camp, you should give some ‘Kharchi’ (money) to our children,” an old woman at Gizri camp said. She said that they came empty-handed and their children were demanding money.
Same were the feelings of a little girl, Popri, at the Razzaqabad relief camp. “We get food but no money and no chapal (shoes),” said Popri who was standing in scorching heat without any shoes. She said that people were getting so much food that they have started selling it to ‘others.’
Ostensibly, the affectees were satisfied with food and health arrangements.
“Around 7,132 flood affectees are residing at the Razzaqabad relief camp,” EDO Revenue, CDGK, Roshan Ali Shaikh informed the visiting media team.
Playing rooms have been reserved for children while the football ground has been made functional for sports activities, he said, adding that a vocational training centre for women has also started. Three hospitals, including one with 10 beds, have been established for the treatment of affectees, he said.
Dr Amjad of the Pakistan Steel Mills, which has set up a clinic there, said that they tended to around 300 patients in 24 hours and out of these 150 were suffering from gastro.
A camp by Nadra was also established there to help the affectees to get duplicates of their ID cards. Ghulam Qadir Jalbani of Nadra said that they have registered 900 families so far and around 700 people have approached them for duplicates of their ID cards.
However, the affectees at the Pakistan-Swedish Institute complained they were not being accommodated and were facing problems in getting treatment.
Nazeer Ahmed, with tears in his eyes, said that he was asked to leave the place as there was no room. He had come from Qubo Saeed Khan along with his family on Saturday. Hafiz Mir Hasan Khoso, who has also come from the same area, said that they were told that they would be shifted to another camp.
Faheem Ali said his son, Farhan Ali, 3, was suffering from heart problems. He took his son to the NICVD with a slip from a camp doctor but doctors did not examine his son there. He brought his son back and was administering him the same treatment, which doctors in Larkana had recommended for the boy