First food, then school

NOWSHERA/MUZAFFARGARH: Classrooms have become homes, school bus drivers have become relief good distributors and staff offices have become storage rooms. The Citizens Foundation (TCF), with 660 schools across the country, has mobilised its staff in flood-affected areas to distribute relief goods.

With 17 out of the organisation’s 18 schools in Muzaffargarh damaged and the remaining one being occupied by families of school bus drivers, 18 buses and drivers are available to distribute relief goods. Each time, the TCF drivers try a different route to reach the maximum number of people. Every pack they hand out has enough food for 200 meals, one meal being for one person. TCF has pledged to distribute 20 million meals by the end of Ramazan and has so far managed to distribute 10 million.

While in Muzaffargarh, a school is being used as a base from where to organise aid. In other places in the country, it’s different. In Nowshera, for instance, someone’s abandoned house is being used as a camp while the army is carrying out the distribution. “The army can maintain discipline otherwise crowds tend to get very rowdy,” says regional manager Commodore (retired) Misbahuddin. In parts of Sindh, the TCF has partnered up with the navy.

Having toured Muzaffargarh and Nowshera, the TCF vice president Ahson Rabbani feels that the easily accessible places in the region are receiving sufficient food and people now need money to rebuild their homes. But in this regard, the most TCF can do is use its contacts to direct government cheques meant for rehabilitation to these people, says Rabbani.

The problems faced in relief work are many, says Misbahuddin. For one, truck drivers have increased their rates as they are in high demand and motorcycles follow trucks around, trying to get their hands on as much food as possible. Another problem is the difficulty in determining who genuinely deserves the aid.

More importantly, the TCF’s primary focus is education, says Rabbani. But they felt compelled to go into relief work “because donors trust us with their money,” he adds.

Back to school

At the same time, the TCF wants a clear-cut exit strategy as far as distributing food is concerned, because they not only want to fix the schools that have been damaged but also build new ones. “We know the government will not give priority to rebuilding their own damaged schools, which will create a vacuum, and we want to fill that space,” says Rabbani.

He thinks it’s important to focus on what they specialise in, as should other NGOs in the aftermath of the floods. But he feels it may be difficult to convince donors that education too is a worthy cause at a time when they want their money to help flood survivors in more direct ways, such as with food and housing.

However, it will be at least a few more months before the TCF’s red-bricked, purpose-built buildings can serve as schools once more. Even if the TCF collects enough money to fix the damages immediately, many teachers have fled from the flooded areas and the organisation is unsure when they will return.

And even then, some students may never come back. Many families who were once willing to let their children study will now require them to work if they are to survive, “just like families who lost everything during Partition took generations to recover,” comments Chohan. “We will soon forget their plight but the ripple effects will not disappear.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2010.