A Relief Camp for Flood Victims

There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? – Leo Buscaglia

The floods that started in the month of July have cause immense destruction in many areas of Pakistan. UN estimates show that 14 million people have been affected by floods and around 1600 have died.  It has been reported that it was the worst flood that has ever taken place in the last 84 years. It was worse than the 2005 earthquake, The Tsunami and the earthquake in Haiti. People lost their sources of income, their families and their houses. These grief-stricken people had nothing left, all that they had, had been destroyed. During this time many people took an initiative to help these people, and so relief camps were set up in various cities.

I had a chance to work as a volunteer in the relief camp set up by two students Amar Abassi and Jibran Nasir. These young students of the University of Manchester decided to take a ‘pehla qadam’ to help these victims. On the 2nd of August 2010 they started a camp at the Royal Rodale club of Karachi, in affiliation with The Rotract Club. These people needed volunteers to work with them. An event page was launched on one of the social networking sites, which gave an opportunity to many people to come forward and work as volunteers. The volunteers mainly comprised of young students from different colleges and universities. These students worked as much as they could with immense zeal and determination. Some people donated in monetary from, whilst others donated the basic commodities that are essential for survival. Amar Abbasi further said “Our initial aim was to earn Rs 1 lakh in one week, but we managed to make 3 lakhs.”

They then associated themselves with The Imtiaz Store, to buy goods from the donations that they had collected. This store provided them with family packs at the rate of Rs 700 per pack. This consisted of the basic commodities such as wheat, rice, sugar, salt, oil, biscuits and other necessities. These commodities were then packed into cartons, by volunteers so that they could be sent to the affected areas. At first there was a shortage of cartons but soon the world was spread in different shops which then supplied cartons to them.