Lending a helping hand

By Ali Suleman

Swat Valley, situated in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan is a beautiful place with lush green meadows, ever-flowing cold rivers and majestic mountain peaks. She used to be one of the most favourite tourists spots in the country and was the hub of tourism in Pakistan. Too fed up with crowds in Muree and Patriata, tourists mostly preferred the vivacious Swat for her serenity. She was, no doubt, a heaven on earth!

The winds of change

Serpents entered the paradise and it started altering. The chirping of birds was replaced by moans and cries and the fragrance of flowers was replaced by the stench of rotten human flesh. The magnificent trees where once lovers used to carve their names were being used as gallows. The old Mangora streets where the local children used to play in the evenings became filled with headless corpses. The chants of "Dur duniya ka meray dum se andhera ho jaye // har jagaah meray chamaknay se ujaala ho jaye" in school rooms were replaced by deafening explosions and bomb-blasts. The Switzerland of Pakistan was now gone. Swat was lost…

Swat now belonged to certain brutal self-righteous irrational fiends who called themselves 'Taliban', meaning 'finders' when roughly translated from Arabic. But finders of what? Perhaps they themselves do not know.

Reclaiming Swat

Towards the end of April, just when we were bidding goodbye to our lovely Swat, the Government, at long last, decided to launch an army operation to quell the troublemakers and bring things back to normal. To minimise the collateral damage, the people of Swat were told to vacate their homes for the duration of this operation. This led to a huge humanitarian crisis. According to the UN, more than 150,000 persons migrated from the affected areas in search of safety. More than 1.8 million people had already travelled from Swat to safer places in the reign of the bullies; otherwise this crisis could have turned out to be a lot more formidable!

The unprecedented internal displacement

The sudden displacement of such a great number of refugees was certainly a mammoth challenge for the Government to handle. Every national and international organisation and the friendly countries chipped in to help the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Billions of dollars were received as donations from all over the world.

Apart from the foreign aid, there was a greater support of hearts and souls as well. Yes! The Pakistani nation had risen once again! Their courage, strength and patience were put to the test and not found wanting.

The residents of Mardan and Swabi vacated their houses to accommodate their displaced guests. They weren't all affluent people. Even a labourer earning only hundred rupees per day hosted a Swati family in his hut, when his own wife and children were finding it difficult to make the ends meet. He didn't even know who his guests were, but did his best to make them comfortable.

Youth to the forefront

The youth from different parts of the country decided to move forward to greet our calamity-stricken brethren, and recently organized a venture. Just like our previous endeavours, this time too our purpose was to achieve a national goal by winning the hearts of the people. There is a general perception that the general public doesn't participate in such activities on their own, and even if they do, they prefer contacting any organised network already working there. Our venture negated this belief and proved the fact that the Pakistani youth is in no way indifferent to what is happening in the country.

While we were collecting donations for the cause, we also received tempting offers from a number of organisations that were already active, to collaborate with them. We refused such proposals, for we saw and still see this as a national cause – not merely social which the organisation people fancied. We wanted to welcome our friends, not just 'help' them by distributing stuff among them, as if they were beggars, or unwanted aliens in their own country!

Problems of the IDPs

Our team included residents of many different cities from all over the country. On the morning of 12th July, we all gathered at a spot in Swabi and set out for Aman Camp. These camps were managed by Jahangir Tarakai Foundation, together with National Rural Support Programme (NRSP).

As we set reached the camp, the intensity of heat there gave us a fair idea of the hardships the IDPs had been enduring throughout their stay. The administration of the camps, however, was very congenial and cooperative. We were informed in detail about the IDPs there, and the problems they faced. All the NGOs and welfare organisations that made it to these camps, brought with them food, clothes, utensils and other items of daily use. The IDPs whom we met were very annoyed with the authorities for not providing them cash for their personal use. We, therefore, decided to hand over the donations we had collected – Rs 500 per family to the neediest ones living there. We set out for the camps. There were 485 tents there, in which 511 families were being accommodated.

And the children feel....

At the camp's reception, I happened to meet two very avid little girls from Karachi. They had come with their parents to help the IDPs themselves, just like us. Amna, the elder of the two sisters studied in 7th grade. She told me that they had brought three big bags of toys for the children. "We started saving our money since we came to know of the calamity. We saved our pocket money, and our snacks money for the cause, and managed almost twenty thousand rupees! Then we came here, went to a toyshop, bought all those toys, and at the same day decided to distribute them among our displaced friends." she said. The younger sister, Fatima, a student of 5th grade, when asked the reason for preferring toys answered, "We cannot play with toys there at our home in Karachi, when we know that our friends here are deprived of them." Their passion was worth-mentioning. Those little girls boosted our own spirits.

The camp-to-camp distribution of donations seemed an exhausting task initially. The heat was also making things difficult for us. But as soon as we started the distribution process, the atmosphere became pleasant, and we felt more energetic with every step.

The modus operandi that we had planned was completely in agreement with our ideology. We went to a camp and knocked. When someone came out, we greeted him and said that we had come to know that some guests had come from Swat, and we wanted to welcome them as our guests. We told the host not to feel alone as the whole nation was with them. We saluted them for their courage and asked them to accept the amount as a gift from us. They said they would pray for us, and we told them not to pray for us alone, but to pray for Pakistan. On seeing smiles on the faces of our brothers, we felt our mission was accomplished!

Generosity of hearts

Although we knew that they didn't even have two pennies to rub together, they offered us the hospitality they could. The six-year-old Saddam Hussein wanted me to visit his camp. He took me to his temporary home, and brought me a glass of water from the inside. He told me that I looked tired and thirsty. Meanwhile, a hand-fan was thrown by someone inside through the window. Saddam picked it up and handed it over to me. This generosity reduced me to tears. I hugged Saddam, kissed his cheek and told him not to worry; he would be in his home very soon. My heart aches when I think of this incident, considering that this calamity has fallen on such benevolent and harmless people.

While in Swabi we stayed at the hujra of Mr Javed Tarakai, the MPA of that constituency. He himself has accommodated 250 IDP families in his own houses and hujras. He doesn't belong to any political party, he said, and only contests the elections independently, on the basis of his family's social work. The flag of Pakistan on the gate of his hujra itself was proof enough for his patriotism. Very seldom do we come across such committed and selfless politicians. We were immensely impressed by him.

Our endeavour did not, and could not, do much for our internally displaced guests, but at least we had made an effort.

Going back home

Now, when our brothers are returning back to their homes, our best wishes are with them. We pray for their safe return, and their immediate rehabilitation. We also hope that the army operation proves to be successful and decisive and all those plunderers are flushed out completely. And we hope that very soon the valley of Swat becomes as lively and colourful as it used to be… the land of kind-hearted people, scrumptious fruit and peaceful landscapes… the Switzerland of Pakistan…

Long live Swat!

Long live the people of Swat!


[http://jang.com.pk/thenews/jul2009-weekly/us-31-07-2009/p25.htm#1]