Eight flood-affected couples tie the knot in Dera Ghazi Khan camps

YWA makes arrangements for nikkah and walima ceremonies at Govt High School No1 Hockey Ground.

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Eight couples, living in flood relief camps in Dera Ghazi Khan, were wedded off in a ceremony organised by a local charity on Wednesday.

The Young Workers Association (YWA), the organisation, made arrangements for the nikkah and walima ceremonies at the Government High School No1 Hockey Ground. The YWA provided the brides with dowry containing all necessary household items.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Shaikh Muhammad Sadiq, Shaikh Muhammad Javed Iqbal and Sarfaraz Raza, the YWA officials, said that they found out during their relief work in Namazighat, Jampur, Sheruu and Basti Malana areas that a number of families had planned their daughters’ weddings before the flood came. The flood, he said, destroyed their belongings including all they had saved up for the weddings. They said that the YWA decided that as other organisations were already working towards provision of food and shelter it should focus on raising funds to organise marriage ceremonies of such couples. The YWA, they said, called a meeting and finalised the plan a month ago. Following the meeting, the YWA volunteers made visits to the relief camps and selected eight deserving families for the first phase of their mass marriage efforts.

Muhammad Issa, father of Khalida who got wedded to Ghulam Sarwar, said that his family had lost everything in the floods, including all they had saved up for Khalida’s wedding.

He said that the YWA volunteers used to distribute food at the relief camp in Namazighat where he was staying with his family.

“I told them that I had settled my daughter’s marriage with Sarwar but the flood washed away all I had collected for her dowry,” he said. Issa said the team noted down his name and later contacted him and told him about the mass marriage ceremony. “I am delighted. It was the biggest burden on my shoulders,” he added.

The YWA officials said that their work would not stop after this ceremony. They said that they planned to raise donations from well-off people so that they could arrange such ceremonies for more deserving families. They said that the funds used to organise the ceremony were generated through the YWA itself, ‘we did not get any assistance from the government’.

One of the newly-wedded couples, Khalida and Ghulam Sarwar, said that they were thankful to the organisation. They said that they wanted to offer their services for the social work being carried out by the YWA.

Meena Jaffar Laghari, a former MNA who attended the ceremony, said that the she was very much impressed by the event and would support the organisation in its future activities.

The two-day ceremonies were attended by the couples’ families, relief camp residents, district administration officials as well as Dera Ghazi Khan commissioner, Hassan Iqbal Malik; district coordination officer Iftikhar  Ali Sahu; Qadrya Darbar caretaker Mian Maqbool Mohiuddin Gillani and Meena Jaffar Laghari.

The couples included:

Khalida and Ghulam Sarwar and Sidra and Muhammad Afzal from the Namazighat relief camp; Kalsoom and Gulzar Ahmed and Shazia and Muhammad Imran from Jampur relief camp; Jaffara Bibi and Hafiz Suleman Khan, Sidra and Muhammad Usman, Saima and Salman Ahmed and Marvi and Sabir Khan from Basti Malana

Published in The Express Tribune ,October 8^th, 2010.