Quake survivors keep dreams alive despite winter closing in

Hameeda Bibi, 37, hums cheerfully as she carefully combs and braids the hair of her daughters, Aziza, 11, and Kulsoom, five. The girls are getting ready to attend the outdoor school set up for quake victims in Punjgara, a town of some 7,500 people, located nearly 30 km from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, in the devastated Neelum Valley. Punjgara is less than 20 km away from the epicentre of the 8 October quake and the evidence of the havoc it caused is still visible everywhere, even seven weeks on. A total of 450 people died in Punjgara and nearly everyone has lost relatives. The rubble of fallen homes lies all around, and landslides dot the slopes from where entire villages are said to have tumbled into the waters of the River Neelum, which runs through the valley. What is remarkable in these circumstances is the spirit of the people themselves. Winter is closing in and this will limit aid work in places like the Neelum Valley. The Pakistani military has said the roads may soon prove too hazardous to allow relief workers to travel on. Despite this, the survivors are determined not only to make it through the winter, but to carry on with their lives, and their dreams. Hameeda, who lost her husband in the quake, says she will not allow this calamity to affect the future of her two daughters, or her youngest child, a son who just turned three. "I will ensure my daughters are educated, and become teachers or doctors so they can help people in this area. We are very poor, but we realise the value of education," Hameeda told IRIN. Hameeda began sending her daughters to attend the makeshift school set up by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), a political party and religious organisation, a week ago, the moment she heard it had become operational. "The school is not a good one, and the children attending it are of all ages. Most have no proper books or stationery, but at least these two will learn something," she says, as the two girls walk out from their tiny makeshift shack towards the school, rubbing their hands to keep them warm. Literacy rates in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, standing at 60 percent, are among the highest in the region. Over 50 percent of young Kashmiri women are literate and almost all children, girls and boys, are enrolled at school. "I know I must not lose more days of study, because I want to be a doctor when I am older, and for that one must study very hard and pass every exam," Aziza told IRIN. Many engaged in the relief effort believe it is this resilience of local people, used to immense hardship, which will pull them through the disaster. "I have never seen such fortitude, such patience. The people are incredible. Look at the efforts to rebuild lives, even in these circumstances," said Shamir Kareem, an Egyptian doctor working in the Neelum Valley area. The effort of women has in particular been remarkable. In an area from where thousands of men work outside Pakistan-administered Kashmir, in Pakistan or other countries, it was the women who found themselves alone when the quake hit. "Many dug bodies out of rubble, buried the dead, carried the injured to hospitals and are now building their own houses, working in teams or with the help of older children," noted Kareem. "We are used to managing by ourselves. Many men visit their homes only a few times a year, and it is us women who carry on with lives, fetching water, shovelling snow off the roofs, caring for the livestock and the kids and farming the land we have," said Gulnar, 28, one of Hameeda's nieces.