Help PDI in Relief and Recovery of 1000 Families

As this baby girl opens her small eyes in this new world, she sees her mother crumpled under the filthy blankets shaking from fever, a father helpless to promise her happiness and a home which is only a temporary camp near a graveyard in Shikarpur. When dreams shattered for the new mothers in flood camps, PDIs team reached to hold on to the last of survival and that was HOPE. Story of celebrating Hope and a birthday.

The celebration was done in a very interesting manner, with the proud mother holding her baby smiling to the women inside the camp while shyly gazing at the PDI team who was busy singing songs in a high pitched way. Little boys with dusty pants and no shirts danced in havoc and girls with torn small pieces for duppatas clutched around their neck to stop from falling clapped eagerly. It was the chatti (sixth day celebration) of little Sadori who was born six days ago in this open area camp build in the red graveyard area of Shikarpur district, Sindh.

Sadori was the fifth infant born in this camp, a fragile gooey eyed girl. Sadori’s mother, Zainab a bony rural woman from Rahim Abad fled with her family from her village when the waves broke away the walls of their village and washed away their belongings. Being pregnant and weak already she had refused to budge but had been dragged out of the house by her husband.

“We couldn’t have lost much, if we would have stayed”, Says Zainab, All we had in life was a few belongings and these girls. What else? She continues pointing to her two little girls who sat close to her with their legs folded and eyes starring at the ground.

Zainab and her husband were peasants; they worked on landlords lands on small wages. Life when already being a struggle for them became a great challenge when the floods took over their only possession of home. According to Zainab even the landlord hadn’t informed them about floods coming and when this disaster struck they were taken aback from the shock.

“We lost all that we ever had been able to posses, when we rushed from our village it was only the cloths that we wore that we owed, but now I own a lot of stuff”. Shares Zainab. “PDI team gave us water coolers, buckets, soaps, towels and everything we needed for pur familiy. They told us it was a gift from people around the world.

Participatory Development Initiatives with the support of Oxfam GB and Global Giving is reaching out to 10,000 families providing them with fresh water, hygiene kits, toilets, washrooms, wash basins, household kits and also giving them each a cheque of 5000 Rupees.

Now after the distribution process the team had been visiting frequently talking to the families about health and hygiene, telling them about cleanliness around the camps and also celebrating hope with them. The past week as the team entered the camp, Zainab held little baby Sadori saying sadly that, my girl opens her small eyes in this new world, she sees her mother crumpled under the filthy blankets shaking from fever, a father helpless to promise her happiness and a home which is only a temporary camp. But PDI’s team and the people inside the camp had their own plans.

A traditional chhati (sixth day) of the baby was celebrated with songs, clapping, childrens’ dance and sweets. But more then anything, with Smiles ~ Lots of them.