by
salman abedin
May 14, 2000. A bus load of
volunteers and myself head to the Thar desert. We set up a relief
collection point in Indus Valley School, and plan to participate
in the distribution of the relief goods. Our leaders in this campaign
are the Raasta Development Consultants' people. We are met by
the staff of the Thardeep Rural Development programme and we attend
the food distribution. We see some dead animals on the way.
On our return, we set up a
multimedia kiosk at the school and have an expanded collection
point in operation. We make it a point to accept no cash, only
oil tins and 'aata' (wheat flour). The people of Karachi are galvanized
through this word of mouth campaign and the volunteers at Raasta
are encouraged to expand the scope of their work to other areas
of Sindh and Baluchistan as well.
May 28, 2000. I am on the
way to Dadu district for another round of food distribution. At
this point I start to wonder about the nature of the 'famine'
since there has been a bumper harvest of wheat in that area. We
return to Karachi with a feeling that food aid can be a dangerous
business, because at the end of the day a bag of wheat is a commodity.
June 17, 2000. Onwards to
District Naushki located at the edge of Baluchistan. We arrive
from Peshawar and set up a camp at a government rest house. We
start distribution the next day in the dry heat of the desert,
and it is here that we actually meet the homeless people living
in extreme poverty.
The driver of one of the pickups
that we are using reminds me that God is the provider for all,
and our efforts are mostly in vain. He says to me: "How many
meals have you brought? For how long will these meals last?"
This makes me realize that it is the effort that matters and activity
in food distribution is cathartic.
In Naushki, I remember one
of the old women in a makeshift camp next to the main road saying
that she was glad for the famine, because this was the first time
she had left her village. Any developmental theory is thrown out
of the window with such comments!
Lessons
Learnt from this Exercise:
Fast
Forward to 2006
I have fond memories of the times we spent with the Raasta crew
in 2000, and want to start something on a regular basis. The plan
is to start some food distribution exercise with the meat from
Qurbani at Eid-ul-Azha. We distribute raw meat as a tradition,
but it is better if we provide cooked meat to the poor so they
can have a decent meal.
By some coincidence of fate,
I get in touch with the Concern for Children (CFC) NGO, which
serves the Machar colony in Karachi. We agree to work with them
to provide meals to the shrimp peelers, who are landless immigrants
of Bangladeshi descent. They work in appalling conditions and
have no recourse to law since they are not citizens of Pakistan.
January 7, 2007. 9:00 am.
The haleem is almost ready. It's time to leave the kitchen where
the 700 odd meals were cooked. The CFC team has done well to set
up a distribution point at their clinic in Machar colony. We quickly
get through the meals, and don't have to deploy the plain clothes
police men on duty.
A very satisfying day indeed.
January 12, 2008. We have
to decide whether the situation will allow us to operate in the
tension-filled areas this year, but the clouds clear and we proceed
with the distribution of our projected number of meals amid chaos.
There is chaos because the
coupons had been distributed a month ago, and the chaos in the
city results in delays in the distribution. We take assistance
from the uniformed police for this distribution - something that
we wanted to avoid at all costs, but the situation does not allow
us to do so.
Lessons
Learnt from this Exercise:
