May 4, 2006	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, May 3: The October 8 earthquake changed the life of many women in Garlaat village near Balakot and many are still understandably struggling to come to terms with what happened.

The quake turned 37-year-old Shahnaz Firdous’s life upside down and she went into complete shock. One of her daughters Zainab was killed when her school collapsed.

“I did not even get to see Zainab being buried, because I was in shock”, she said, adding that her husband was also injured by falling concrete and now he could not work anymore.

“Now that my husband cannot work, its important that I work and support my family.

“Its better to light a candle than to curse the darkness,” Ms Firdous said.

She said educational activities had once again started at tented schools which were keeping her seven remaining children busy. Now, I can work in a relaxed atmosphere, she added.

She said her eldest son wanted to become a doctor when he grew up to serve his community and the nation, as he was impressed with the work of international medical teams which arrived soon after the earthquake.

Ms Firdous said: “To fulfil his dream, I need to save money and hopefully, I can do that now.”

She said the International Rescue Committee (IRC) had introduced a cash-for-work scheme to help women provide for their families in the short-term and learn a new skill for the future.

Life has been harsh for many of these women, but slowly things are beginning to move forward. The IRC’s cash-for-work activity has provided a platform where I can use my skills and also save my children from starvation, she added.

The IRC donated 17 sewing machines, cloth and other materials to 25 vulnerable women at a Women’s Empowerment Centre in Garlaat.

The women are using the machines to make hygiene bags, which are used in IRC hygiene promotion activities.

IRC child protection manager Nasir Haleem said the cash-for- work activity served as a two fold course of action.

At one end, it is providing vulnerable women with work and paying them Rs50 for each bag they stitch. Similarly, it also benefits the IRC as we get quality hygiene bags for our programmes, he added.

He said the women were trained by IRC master trainers in how to use the new machines and make the bags. The master trainers identify women like Shahnaz, who have previous sewing skills, to become senior trainers and help their colleagues once the master trainers have left, he added.

IRC team leader in Mansehra district Suleman Khan said some 2,000 hygiene bags had already been sent to Shangla and 1,000 more were ready to be delivered to Muzaffarabad.

The great thing is that even after the cash-for-work project ends, the women can use their machines and skills to make their own livelihood, he said.

Mr Khan said the IRC carried out detailed assessments of villages like Garlaat to ensure that the most vulnerable beneficiaries were selected for these cash-for-work schemes.

Correct identification of these women beneficiaries was very important for the IRC so that it could provide help to those who were really deserving and to whom it would really make a difference, he added.