PAKISTAN: Government and aid agencies struggle to help those made widows and orphans by the devastating Pakistan earthquake

Pakistan's massive earthquake last October, which killed more than 73,000 people has left thousands of children without parents and thousands of women without husbands. Aid agencies estimate that there are more than 6,000 widows and almost 41,000 orphans amongst the three million left with nothing after the quake. The widows and orphans are homeless and need protection against the fast-approaching winter. Northern Pakistan is a largely rural area where women already struggle with gender discrimination, social exclusion, illiteracy and low incomes. Traditionally, women of this conservative region stay at home to take care of the household and children while men go out to work. The quake meant thousands of women lost their breadwinners, either through death or disability. The deaths of these men also produced tens of thousands of orphans. In Pakistan, unlike in other parts of the world, a child is an orphan if he or she has lost their father, even if their mother is still alive. Trying to bring some semblance of normality to these traumatised is a difficult task for aid agencies still working in the region. Young children living in camps are still haunted by memories of the earthquake. Ten-year old Sajawal Ahmed, his lashes wet with tears, remembers the horrific day almost one year ago when his home collapsed on his family. "They were under the house (rubble). My sister kept saying: 'Take out my mother and father.' I said: 'How can I do that? I am alone.' Then my uncles took them out," he said. Sajawal brightens up as he watches slightly-older boys playing cricket on the sprawling grounds of the privately-run camp and tells Reuters Television he wants to become like Inzamamul Haq, referring to Pakistan's popular cricket skipper. "If these children are not educated, looked after, some of them will become dacoits (member of robbery gang) and thieves, some will beg," said Mohammad Abuzar Shah, assistant manager of the camp. "The generation that has lost parents and families - the generation that has survived - will end up destroyed," he said shaking his head. At the camp at Atar Sheesha, some 20km away from the battered town of Balakot, 21 widows spend their time taking care of several hundred orphans. "Even Allah appreciates this kind of work, so I am doing it voluntarily. Besides, I also have no one, neither mother nor father, so I enjoy doing it," says 27-year-old Maryam Rehman, one of the caretaker widows who lives there. Covered in a beige head-to-toe veil, she strolls through the camp with the children before they settle down for story time. Aid workers not only try to provide shelter and care for the youngsters, but also psycological help. "After the quake, children were not social and preferred to stay away from people. In fact, they refused to go to school out of fear of another quake. But now, they have become out-going; they take part in sports and are generally very active," said Mohammad Ali, a psychosocial support field officer at a Red Crescent camp high up in Shahal village. Shortly after the quake, Pakistan stopped the adoption of orphans to prevent child traffickers from adopting children and selling them into child labour or prostitution, already problem in Pakistan. Women who lost their husbands during the quake and left their villages in search of shelter in camps often do not have family protection and, because they left their villages, some have also missed the compensation the government is paying for reconstruction of destroyed houses. There are reports that widows and orphans who have collected death benefits for a family member -- 100,000 rupees or approx. $1,750 -- have been targets of thieves, often relatives and neighbors. A month after the disaster, international donors pledged $6.5 billion for Pakistan to help it through the relief, recovery and reconstruction phases of the crisis. The reconstruction portion had been put at $3.6 billion originally, but the number of new houses to be built had been significantly underestimated. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told a conference to update donors the amount now required was $4.4 billion, which meant Pakistan is $800 million short. On October 8, it will be exactly one year since the 7.6 earthquake devastated parts of the subcontinent.

ITN Source | October 6, 2006

Tags:. .beg. .rural. .allah. .nor. .portion