Beyond the pale

Fr Peter Woodruff reports on Columban outreach to families in south-east Pakistan left homeless after the floods of 2011/2012:

Photo caption: Family in front of temporary shelter.

I was staying at St Elizabeth Hospital, Hyderabad, not as a patient but as a visitor. My visit was coordinated by Australian Columban Fr Robert McCulloch who works closely with St Elizabeth Hospital's medical outreach program raising funds and planning future projects. With Aamir Sohail, the coordinator of St Elizabeth Hospital’s medical outreach program, I travelled out of Hyderbad in south-east Pakistan to visit villages where the hospital team has been helping with flood relief housing. The roads we travelled passed through flat, semi-desert country. Small dried mud houses were scattered along the way. I wondered how far we would have to go to find our villages. We turned off the main road which soon became a dirt track and then on to another dirt track, and another until we finally arrived at a hamlet tucked away behind a wall of trees. Our arrival depended entirely on local knowledge because there were no road signs and the hamlet displayed no name.

I was informed that the hamlet was called Moha Parigal Shoro Goth and that the 22 familes living there belonged to the Katchi Kohli tribe and were Hindus. When we arrived in the village Ama, the head woman, gave us a warm welcome and then numerous children and adults showed us around from house to house. Tethered water buffalo occupied much of the free space; in one part drying red chilli was spread out on a surface of hard, cracked mud. Clearly life was a constant grind for these people.

Photo caption (right): Ama, the head village woman, standing in front of her Hindu shrine and a painting of her sister who is known as a Hindu Saint in India.

I felt sadness when on asking about schooling for the children they told me that they don’t go to school as the nearest school is five kilometres down the road. Children walking alone for that distance would, I suspect, be at risk; also, at the school their Hindu and tribal background would be cause for discrimination, overt or otherwise. So many of the children in rural villages and hamlets have little chance to go to school, and so the cycle of poverty, due in part to illiteracy, continues to follow its fatalistic course.

Photo caption (left): Yacob Aziz, building contractor

Yacob Aziz, the building contractor showed me the eight toilet blocks (two small rooms, one for washing and one for the toilet). Each house has two rooms, with one steel door and windows for a cross breeze. The hospital relief project supplied the steel and wood roof supports, the steel door and windows. The residents have built everything with their own hands.

These people work the land for a landowner. Their village has a Hindu temple and they observe the teachings of their religious faith, one of which is not to eat any kind of meat or fish, even though other groups of Hindus might eat chicken or fish. Ama showed me with pride her personal religious shrine located in the outer living space of her home.

We moved further down the main road to what was one of the most heart-rending sights of homelessness I have ever seen - 105 families of the Parkari Kohli tribe, all Hindus, living in a space beside a river, which was the fifth place they had been moved to. St Elizabeth Hospital has bought from a local landowner, four acres of land at Jhirruk, 40kms south of Hyderabad. The hospital's outreach medical team saw the need for the housing project while it was providing health care. The 105 families have moved on to the new site where Yacob has begun building. These houses are elevated about two feet above the ground to protect against any flooding. Because construction costs have more than doubled in past few months, even after receiving all  promised funds, there has only be enough money to build 40 houses.

Photo caption: Completed homes at Jhirruk.

Funding for the housing came through Columban Fr Robert McCulloch, in particular from St Vincent de Paul Society in Victoria, from Australian Columban benefactors, from Jesuits in Pakistan who have received finance from Australia, and from the Sisters of Jesus and Mary in Lahore.

Photo caption (right): Reshma, village leader.

I was introduced to Reshma, a head woman who has been active in finding a solution for her people’s housing crisis at Jhirruk. Like Ama, Reshma was gracious and kind in her welcome. We went from shelter to shelter photographing family members posing in front of their temporary dwelling. Also, the children at Jhirruk have no chance to attend school.

Our last stop was at Burfat, a Sindhi Muslim village with 46 families. They too gave us a warm welcome but, for the most part, the residents were busy about the business of the day; we arrived just after noon. The head man, Ali Buksh, guided us around his village. Every Saturday he travels to one of a number of villages with the St Elizabeth Hospital's mobile medical team. In Burfat, Yacob proudly showed us the finished houses that he had built. Life is clearly hard for the residents of this village but they now have their own homes.

65 more families at Jhirruk urgently need houses before the monsoon rains begin. Each two-room permanent house will cost AUD$1,850 to build.

Fr Peter Woodruff SSC is currently working at the Columban Mission Centre in Australia.

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