Displaced families try to overcome trauma at relief camp in Karachi’s suburb

Despite the trauma of raging floods brought on by torrential rains that washed away her house and forced her and her family members to flee their village, Suraiya, who is in her 20s, has a reason to rejoice — her newborn baby.

Volunteers at a government college-turned-relief camp in Shahnawaz Shar village, a suburb in the port city’s District East, are planning to celebrate the birth of the seven-day-old baby by holding his ‘Chathi’, a traditional ceremony held in Sindh to name a newborn, on Monday (today).

The woman gave birth to the boy at a nearby maternity hospital on September 4, Sunday. “Traditionally, Chathi is held on the sixth day of a child’s birth but it got delayed as we couldn’t make arrangements for it,” explains Irfan Almani, one of the volunteers, who spends all day at the camp attending to the needs of the flood victims.

“We have invited women who sing traditional folk songs called lada and artists to perform. We will distribute sweets and have also arranged new clothes for the baby and his mother. It will be celebrated in the same traditional style as in villages,” he said.

Though the infant’s mother is not sure about his name, Almani said the child would be named ‘Allah Bachayu’, apparently to refer to the fact that the baby had survived through the flood disaster with the blessing of Almighty God.

The volunteer said the purpose behind holding the ceremony would be to entertain and bring joy to the distressed people. Suraiya along with her father and mother-in-law has been lodged at the camp where over 110 others families comprising over 622 people, including children, women and elderly, have taken shelter.

Eighty two families are from flood-hit areas of Jacobabad, eight from Qamber-Shahdadkot, four each from Larkana and Shikarpur, seven from Khairpur, two from Dadu and six from Balochistan’s Jafferabad district.

“We left after our home and our crops were destroyed by the floods,” the woman from Daud Jahanpur village in Gahri Khero tehsil ofJacobabad recounted as she sat beside her seven-day-old baby on a Ralli (Sindhi quilt) spread on the floor in a classroom. The infant was fast asleep in a tiny mosquito net.

She said local landlords helped arrange for her family and other victims to be transported to Karachi. Her husband, a farmer, stayed back to look after the livestock. She seemed content with the facilities being provided at the camp.

Almani explained that the Saylani Welfare Trust, a non-profit organisation, distributed meal at the relief camp twice a day, and other needs of the people, including potable water and cleanliness, were taken care of with the help of the local administration, philanthropists and NGOs, including the Dawat-i-Islami.

The government has set up a medical camp with doctors available in two eight-hour shifts to provide medical aid. A free mobile medical camp of the Sindh police’s SSU Commandos was also busy tending to ailing flood victims at the camp when this scribe visited the camp.

“We keep the children engaged here through different kind of activities,” another volunteer, Akbar Utradi, a local artist, said. “The children are being provided education as well as Quran lessons. They have been given notebooks, pencils and other necessary stationery. They also play football, cricket and other games here,” he said.

Utradi added that he tried to bring smile to the faces of the distraught flood victims with his funny performances, jokes and mimicry. Some women and girls were busy washing clothes while others were sleeping or sitting huddled in classrooms where their belongings, including old iron trunks, were stacked up upon each other against the walls. Children were playing marbles and other games while some were just running around.

TV artist Asad Qureshi, who was also present at the camp, said the flood relief camps he had been visiting in Karachi had better arrangements and floods victims were being taken care in an effective manner.