Arrival to Balakot

April 8, 2006 My trip north again takes me wildly through some rugged terrain and on arrival to Balakot I am welcomed by my old friends. Umeed has started to sell concrete bricks to finance a part of their building efforts. We (Sustainable Relief) must start serious fund-raising again to finance our projects; otherwise most of the work will be left unfinished. I am heading back to the US in a few weeks and hopefully this will reenergize me and the whole team stateside. As a token of gratitude, I add this small photo of my close friend and companion: Shabbir of Bissian on a beautiful spring day close to his village.

Must Recuperate

March 4, 2006 Due to bad weather or perhaps just a drastic change in lifestyle, I have to go to Karachi to recuperate. The extreme changes in morning and evening temperatures along with a radical change in my diet and living conditions have forced me to return down south temporally to regain my strength. I will be back shortly to this beautiful land to complete the task at hand, but my colleagues are staying to oversee the building work that has been started.

Fair Share

Feb 16, 2006: We caused a ruckus down in Hazaa so the villagers of Hung-ri could get their fair share of relief supplies (Relief agencies want villagers to come down the mountains and stay in the charity tents, the villagers would rather camp near their villages because of social concerns at the charity camps. Disturbing villager’s rations is one way agencies can force villagers to come down the mountains.) We have decided to tour and see for ourselves how the relief operations are being handled elsewhere along the fault line. Umeed, a sister organization, and us have finally settled on an earthquake proof shelter made of concrete blocks and a tin roof. ‘Soft’ roofs are mandated by the Earthquake commission till further notice. With the cooperation of the villagers, we hope to have 4 ‘shelters’ up in 2 weeks.

Near the epicenter

Jan 27, 2006: We reach Hung-ri after many days of rain and landslides. At about 6500 feet, it is not an easily accessible village. Sitting almost right on top of the Oct 8, 2005 epicenter 17 km northwest of Balakot, everything is in ruins. None of the original structures exist except in shambles. Some of the hardier public structures like the school building have collapsed, but not disintegrated like the homes for the 200 odd villagers have. We are told that 84 people died in this earthquake from the village of Hung-ri alone –mostly children.

Fresh graves

Jan 18, 2006: This school looks intact from the front, but part of the structure has fallen in the back and was declared unsafe. If one turns around they can see fresh graves of children that once played here buried in a hurry on the side of the road.

Main town completely destroyed

Jan 14, 2006: 4 km away, Balakot, the main town in this neighborhood is completely destroyed. Three and four story buildings lay in ruin. Shops have set up tents around their property so they can have some semblance of normalcy. It is a surreal environment, one which is difficult to describe.

Our temporary home base

Jan 13, 2006: We have found grounds to camp on at the Haaza College. This will be our temporary home base and seems to be the only safe and open ground close to Balakot, which is only 4 km north of us. Haaza College is itself destroyed, but the open ground offers plenty of space for relief organizations to camp and distribute supplies.

Ready for the journey north

Jan 11, 2006: After weeks of intestinal pains and quick sprints to the washroom, we’re ready for the final journey north to Balakot in Northern Pakistan from Karachi –a cosmopolitan city on the coastline of Pakistan. Our small group has decided to use the train service to save funds –none of our personal expenses are covered by Sustainable Relief. Using cheap local transport has become even more important.

So far so good

Dec 18, 2005: The semester is done. Sustainable Relief has been up and running for close to a month. Our status as a non-profit organization has been recognized. We’re partnering with some very professional people such as Umeed and Austin Community Foundation. REI has come through with excellent equipment for our volunteers traveling to Northern Pakistan. Central Texas churches and businessmen have been contacted for relief supplies and donations. I hope this will be a fruitful exercise. So far so good. Oh yeah, WE FLY to PAKISTAN TODAY!!

What a beautiful man

Nov 12, 2005: What a beautiful man. Pastor Greg gave me the most uplifting advice I could have received on the phone: Do what you can. When I accidentally mentioned a group of us had a notion of starting a non-profit relief group, he gave me names of excellent people to contact. Close friends like Gil, Mattke, and wonderful Sarretta did not even have to be won over for this idea.

Reaching out for help

Nov 11, 2005: After a month of comfortably avoiding any memory of the land of my youth –I had a jolt one beautiful night on my daily walk. I was in a frightening situation once. With no car, no home, and no return call from the person I loved I felt a sharp pain, this could have happened to anyone in the earthquake zone. Who would help? Who could help? I immediately called Pastor Greg, councilor to an old college friend, at Austin Episcopal Church for advice.

Massive Earthquake

Oct 8, 2005: A powerful and damaging earthquake shook Northern Pakistan and parts of India.... Early reports indicated little damage, but a few days’ later body counts exceeded 70,000 dead and over 3 million homes destroyed. Most of the damage was along the fault line running from Muzzafarabad to Allai –with its epicenter near Balakot.
The Earthquake affected rural farming communities in the mountainous highlands of Northern Pakistan; about 4000 villages were destroyed in an area the size of Belgium. Farmers in these areas depend on small fertile valleys and grow a variety of crops by using traditional terrace farming methods.

These rural communities are isolated and economically depressed, but have strong family and community ties. Sending relief supplies has been made difficult because of landslides on all main roads, most of which run at 3000 feet above sea level, and this effectively cuts off many of the communities living at snow-lined heights of 6000 ft or more.

Two more homes or ‘shelters’ completed

March 2, 2005: Two more homes or ‘shelters’ (as the Earthquake Commission have termed) have been completed. With the help of Umeed, a sister organization, and a partnership in a small brick factory, two beautiful functional shelters have come into use. The government is discouraging from building ‘hard’ structures temporally due to the aftershocks, so one can note the red painted tin roofs on these wonderful structures. The plans and engineering were provided by charitable organizations, while the labor is provided by the villagers to give them a sense of ownership.

Camps are all along the roads

Feb 20, 2005 Charity camps are littered all along the major roads, operated by local and foreign organizations. Some of them are run very professionally and this can be seen with the attention to small details such as providing instructions to children on hygiene. At others, large amounts of calcium carbonate (chalk lines) are used to keep microbes at bay. All along the fault line one can easily find demolished structures, and any open spaces are either utilized by tent cities or gravesites.