I’m planning to trial a slightly more structured approach to this blog. Let’s see how it goes. The first feature of this new approach is “Change the World Friday”.
Why change the world? Because lots of people ask me what they can do about the big, and small, problems in the world. This regular weekly post will feature ideas about how all of us can make the world a better place, one Friday at a time.
Why Friday? Because Fridays are the day when I get a bit worn down by my easy, comfortable middle-class life and nothing regenerates my gratitude and joy like remembering the rest of the world and doing my little bit to make the world a little bit fairer, safer and more beautiful.
This week I’m featuring an opportunity to help at a very grassroots level in Pakistan. I’ll let you read the letter that was forwarded to me from a friend who worked in Pakistan after the big earthquake and knows the country well. This letter is from a Pakistani woman who, together with her husband and some friends, is doing great work to serve the families currently displaced from their homes.
“The worsening situation in the Frontier Province of Pakistan is leaving many in misery. Hundreds and thousands of men, women and children have been forced to flee their homes with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. This is probably the largest displacement in our history. We, my husband, his colleagues, our friends and myself, have put together a volunteer effort to provide assistance to as many people as we can, given our resources. Though a drop in the ocean, we are trying to reach out to those who are not being serviced and are in spontaneous camps. We are setting up a community kitchen to provide food and water (the most immediate need at the moment) to the IDPs of Swat Valley, NWFP. The details of the activity are given below:
Coverage:
Govt. Primary School No. 01, Kasorona, Swabi Road , Mardan. There are about 800 people in this school and four other schools in the vicinity; the classrooms are being used to house approximately five families each. All the IDPs in these 5 schools will be serviced from our kitchen. The location has been identified with the help of local volunteers and local authorities.
We will be providing two freshly cooked meals (to be cooked on location) to 800 persons from tomorrow onwards, Inshallah. It is however, expected that the number of people will increase with time; we will increase our distributions accordingly.
Our planned scope of activity:
Our intention is to provide 2 free meals per day for at least 30 days (initially) for the whole community. A basic meal per person costs around Rs. 45/- ( US $ 0.56) and for a group of 800, this will cost be Rs. 36,000 (US $ 450) per meal for the community.
We have purchased electric water chillers and water filters, upon the insistent demand of the IDPs and local volunteers, to provide the men and women and children with clean drinking water.
A daily quota of milk for small children will be provided accompanied by energy drinks for older children and adults given the hot weather and the fact that these displaced people are from cool areas and not used to the heat.
The Team and Management:
A team of 9 volunteers has been placed on site where as logistic and monitoring support will be given from Islamabad . My husband and I will be making regular trips to ensure everything is functioning smoothly. We can also use volunteers to physically help out with the work in the kitchen and distribution. In fact we can use all the helping hands available. Serving food to 800 individuals (numbers expected to increase) twice a day is a lot of work. However, additional volunteers, especially women will be more than welcome as we need support in reaching out to the women and children.
Our planned accommodation for all volunteers is in the school with very basic facilities and the work is not for those who cannot handle rough environs. Some of you were with us in Earthquake relief work and would remember the conditions then. I can tell you that this is on a much larger scale but thankfully with much lesser number of physically injured. The conditions for relief work are equally tough this time around.
We are keeping the scope of our work very defined/focused and are doing so intentionally. This will help us conduct our activities in a very organized manner and there is very limited chance of undeserving individuals misusing something like this (A meal is a meal and what else can you do with it except eating it J)
All this effort is on a very personal level (no NGO, politicians, company or any such thing). We have already set up camp in the school and Inshallah will be serving our first meal tomorrow (May 15, 2009).”
If you want to know more about this work you can call the couple directly in Pakistan. Their names and contact numbers are: Amara Saeed (Ph: 92-345-5110501) and Farhan Butt (Ph: 92-333-5710000)
My friend, who worked with Amara in Pakistan says:
You can send your contribution directly to the couple by bank transfer to the following account
Account title: M. Farhan Butt
Account No: 31.11.75.007
Account type: PLS
Bank Name: Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) formerly ABN AMRO
Branch address: 15, Markaz F-7, Islamabad
The Swift Code is: ABN AP KKA
The Branch Code is: 332
Or – if it is easier for you – you can make a donation using PayPal into the ChipIn fund I’ve set up and then I’ll transfer all the funds to their account.
Wonderful idea, friend. Thank you for sharing!
Posted by: Chookooloonks | May 16, 2009 at 02:25 AM
Wow, thank you so much for sharing Amara's letter and for helping to mobilise support for her work. I wish I could be there to volunteer, but in lieu of that I will also be sending a donation through your chip-in fund.
Change the World Friday is a wonderful idea. Thank you for putting words into actions, and helping us to help others.
xxxx
Posted by: Immy | May 17, 2009 at 05:13 AM
I am FROM Pakistan, so of course this issue is extra urgent to me...thank you for the addresses & info..will do all I can...
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxo
Posted by: [a} | May 17, 2009 at 09:47 AM