LAHORE: Punjab Educational Endowment Fund vice-chairman and Akhuwat director Dr Amjad Saqib has stressed that public and private sectors as well as civil society should join hands to create a better society and put Pakistan on the progress path.

Speaking at a dialogue on “Punjab Floods 2014: Post-flood scenario” organised by an NGO HANDS at a local hotel on Friday, Dr Saqib said the self-respect of flood victims must be protected by not offering them “alms” but interest-free loans so that they could be rehabilitated by establishing their homes and businesses.

He said the government and NGOs served just for few days in calamity-hit areas but the affectees continued to suffer for months and years.

He stressed that the affectees should not be compelled to become parasites but a system that could help them survive respectfully.

He said the Akhuwat had given some Rs150 million to the flood-affectees in Rajanpur as interest-free loan and added that the return rate stood at 99.8 per cent.

The UNOCHA representative said one dollar spent on prevention saved 10 dollars in response, while other representatives from international agencies including Oxfam, UNFAO, Islamic Relief, NRSP and Custom Health Care Society, shared their work in the field in response to the disaster. All agreed to work for the community-based disaster risk management for resilience activities.

PDMA representative said that 31-member committee had been constituted by the PDMA to check any kind of emergency and added that the authority wanted to build capacity of community.

HANDS Chief Executive Dr Tanveer Ahmed Shaikh said the dialogue was organised to synchronize all efforts and to present already tested models with the government, UN agencies, donors, civil society organizations for further replication by keeping in mind the value for money.

The HANDS GM Infrastructure shared the efforts that had been made in response to 2014 floods in Punjab and added that the organization had supported 2,000 people in relief activity with food and low-cost shelter and other utilities while 10,000 people would be benefited with the project.

He said a project had been launched in four districts -- Multan, Jhang, Mandi Bahauddin and Muzaffargarh for flood victims.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2015

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