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It seems like yesterday
Living in the adjacent apartment building in F/10 and witnessing the emotional scenes from my apartment balcony, I can recall last year’s Saturday morning like yesterday.
People who lost their lives in the Margalla Towers building were known to me in someway or the other. They were colleagues, friends, children’s friends or part of the Islamabad’s larger social circle. Each apartment of the ill-fated Margalla Towers had lost a sibling to get tears rolling down whereas many did not even get this opportunity and vanished all together -- gone in a blink of an eye. Tomorrow morning we will all gather to offer fateh for them at the site.
Within minutes of the collapse of the tower, people of the area came running to the rubble of the towers holding shovels, spades or whatever they could grab or get their hands on and started rescue efforts. The sight was a pleasant surprise as one could feel the spirit of helping others come alive in Islooites.
Boys helped to take the injured to the hospital and donated blood for the victims. Long before the maghrib azan, iftaris started pouring in at the site for the rescue workers and the homeless sitting out there in the open. Make shift tents in Fatima Jinnah Park were set up to accommodate the near and dear ones of the people trapped in the rubble of the fallen Margalla Towers, waiting for news about their dear ones still under the concrete rubble. Engaged in the daunting task of finding people trapped under tons of debris. People gathered there formed a human chain to remove stones from the rubble and throw them away.
I still remember on the second day around iftari, it was difficult to find bread and buns at the bakeries. People brought all sorts of food items to be transported to the affected areas. It was difficult to keep up with the demand, a grocery store owner in F/10 Markaz explained after customers complained of scarcity of bread in the market.
Everyone in the capital wanted to be a part of it. Every one, contributing in his or her own way. The help extended by the international community is also commendable. Every country of the world had chipped in one way or the other. It was no doubt a rare show of solidarity with the nation over the enormous loss of life in which ‘the entire nation stands united’ at this critical juncture.
And it was not just Islamabad. The earthquake had affected large areas of Kashmir and Northern Areas. But the whole nation joined in the relief work and help came pouring in.
The children’s catastrophe
The devastating earthquake that struck northern Pakistan a year back was quickly dubbed the children’s catastrophe due to the high number of young casualties. Nearly half of the affected population was under 18 and nearly one-fifth were children under five. What was worse was that it was a school day and around 18,000 children perished in classrooms.
It was a situation in which children had their sense of security destroyed — family members had died, they had been displaced, friendships had been broken and their routine gone awry. For young children, it was extremely difficult to make sense of what has happened and why. Older children felt that their future was futile as they had lost their education opportunities, homes and family livelihoods,'' Dr Rizwan Taj, Head of Pshycaitary, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad.
The first few weeks saw hospitals of Islamabad and Rawalpindi full of injured children brought from far off and remote villages of Azad Kashmir and Mansera, by air, without accompanying family members. They were either in shock or in mourning. Even those who did not seem to be severely traumatised, needed support psycho-social support addressing both emotional and social needs and this is consistent with work done in other disaster areas,'' says Anila former Executive Director Cavish Development Foundation, Islamabad based NGO working on child sexual abuse.
With thousands of children separated from their parents or orphaned, their vulnerability and risk of being exploited or trafficked increased tremendously. With media showing faces of beautiful, children with light hair and coloured eyes, a lot of people offered to adopt orphan children. Some of them out of genuine reason, but “some of them were looking for baby sitters and other domestic help”, informs a journalist colleague in Islamabad.
The government, with the best of intentions, responded in a timely manner. Due to the concerns of the Ministry of Social Welfare regarding adoption, the Cabinet banned all adoptions during the six months following the earthquake. Tight security was planned around the hospital entrances and exits, police watching people in and out and doctors were not allowed to release children to anyone until genuine family members were ascertained.
The top priority in the aftermath of a tragedy of this scale is to put in place protection measures for these vulnerable children, even as the immediate needs for medical care, food and shelter of thousands of others are being attended to. Those who would prey upon children in this chaotic environment were already at work. Measures to protect children in the effected areas from exploitation, abuse and criminal trafficking are needed immediately to prevent them from slipping between the cracks.
Aid agencies supported the government with the registration of affected/separated children and coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross/Red Crescent to trace families.
The young take over
The scenes inside the Children’s Hospital at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, were very moving. Young boys and girls in school uniforms, boy scouts, girl guides, women in hejab and plain clothes, wearing masks and gloves were moving patients to and from rooms to operation theatres, distributing food an drinks and changing children’s clothes.
They had taken over the staff work, taking test samples, bringing reports, catering or transporting patients, helping the exhausted hospital staff with limited resources. Not caring about their own food, they were on a 24 hour shift, taking turns.
Dr Tabish Hazir of the Children’s Hospital at PIMS feel that in a disaster of such magnitude, no organisation either voluntary or government can work in isolation. Everything has to be done jointly and volunteers must be supported. “These youngsters are very motivated and charged and we need to channelise them and delegate responsibility. Unfortunately the acknowledgement that is due has not come so far,” says Dr Tabish, of Children’s Hospital.
Building back better
There are events in history when human courage, endurance, patience and the will to live are put to unprecedented tests. The earthquake that hit Pakistan on October 8 last year was just that kind of an event. One year on there are still many challenges ahead but we are optimistic than ever.
The focus is now increasingly shifting towards recovery and rehabilitation of affected communities. An initial joint assessment by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank found that 400,000 homes were damaged or destroyed by the earthquake. Later estimates from the government and ERRA put the figure at more than 600,000.
The aftermath was shocking even to the most battle hardened humanitarian aid workers. Some 10,000 schools were levelled and thousands of students and teachers were killed instantly. Many remain with permanent injuries.
Although Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) are all combining efforts to rebuild lives and institutions, the scale of the tragedy means that, despite the success of the relief operation and early recovery efforts, reconstruction and full resumption of social services will still take time. Local communities are being encouraged to participate in the planning and implementation process
Access to quality education is the cornerstone of every child’s recovery and rehabilitation. Getting children back to school and improving education standards, with the aim to enrol children who have never attended school before including girls, orphans, disabled and displaced. This includes quake resistant primary schools, health facilities, water supply systems, training of primary and middle school teachers, child protection networks in affected communities and life skills training to be imparted. We continue to count on the support of donors, government counterparts, NGO partners and, last but not least, on local communities whose resilience and courage form the linchpin of recovery efforts, says Terje Thodesen, Principal Officer Emergency, Unicef.
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