Special refuge for vulnerable quake victims

There is something oddly comforting about the sight of eight-year-old Muhammad Iqbal, crying. The child earthquake survivor is weeping not from pain, hunger or cold, but because he has just been dismissed during a cricket game being played at a special shelter for women and children left alone by the quake. "I wasn't out at all, but the umpire is the bowler's brother and gave me out LBW [leg before wicket]," Iqbal shrieked, in a complaint that echoes similar ones made everywhere by small boys across the courtyards, playgrounds and streets of cricket-mad Pakistan. Iqbal and the 10 other young boys participating in the game are fortunate. They live at the shelter based in the town of Hattian in the Attock district of the Punjab province, some 80 km northeast of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, at what was intended to be a residential colony for workers of the Ghazi Bharota Dam. The colony, along with the controversial dam project, was abandoned three years ago – the site spotted by relief workers as a perfect place to house particularly vulnerable quake victims. The shelter, set up within a week of the 8 October quake - that killed at least 80,000 people - by local NGO the Khubab Foundation and the Pakistan government's Ministry of Social Welfare, houses nearly 300 women and children left without male family members after the disaster. The tall grass and overgrown shrubs that almost hid the residential colony from view have been cleared. A school, hospital, playgrounds, community dining hall, general store and mosque have been built. An office of the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) completes formalities and documentation of the residents and several residential blocks house the survivors. Many freshly painted walls now bear the handprints of the children who run through the settlement each day. Some of the rooms at the camp have attached bathrooms and all have toilets close by. The heating arrangements are good and the women and children living at the shelter seem happy, relatively well-fed and secure. "Immediately after the quake, I just did not know what to do. I was left alone near Muzaffarabad with my three children. We are delighted to have any kind of shelter over our heads and a sense of security," said Rafia Bibi, 25, who arrived at the shelter three weeks ago nursing a broken leg. Security is a crucial issue for women and children earthquake survivors left on their own in a society where trafficking and exploitation for the sex trade are commonplace. "These women could fall victim to traffickers, or other dangers if they stayed somewhere all alone," Pakistan’s social welfare minister, Zubaida Jalal, said in Islamabad. Jalal played a key role in establishing the camp and continues to take a personal interest in the project. In order to ensure the safety of residents, no men except authorised administrative workers are allowed within the premises and uniformed security guards stand on duty at the entry gate. The result is that, unlike other camp settlements, where families tend to huddle together in scared clusters, young girls and children run freely through the area, vying for a turn on one of the swings, and women sit outside in the sunshine mending clothes or knitting. Elderly women, unable to care for themselves, are helped by attendants into chairs so they can watch the buzz of life all around them. However, a dark cloud hangs over these scenes of seemingly happy normality. The future of the residents is not yet certain, with some plans to relocate them nearer the homes they have left in Pakistani-administered Kashmir or quake-hit areas of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The Ashiana shelter meanwhile hopes to expand its capacity to provide long-term living space for up to 2,000 people. It can currently house 1,500. The organisers are also planning to make arrangements to house 100 elderly women, who have nowhere else to live. "We want to stay here now, forever. We have no other home to go to," said Nadira Bibi, 16. Other residents too, seek a permanent solution to their plight and many also want to use their skills to earn an income. "We can stitch, we can embroider and we can learn other things. We must have a way to support our children in the years ahead," says Zahida, a mother of two. A vocational training centre for women has recently been set up at the shelter and offers classes in sewing, carpet weaving and cooking. For now, schooling has been organised for all 180 or so children at the facility. At least 40 among them are orphans, while the rest live with mothers who have been widowed. Camp organisers also plan to ensure education for all children who live at the settlement longer term and expect their numbers to increase in the coming days. "The estimates made so far show over 5,000 children have been orphaned by the quake," said Muhammad Nasir, the project director for the shelter. He added that while many of these children were "currently living with extended families," they would eventually be handed over as it was "very difficult for people to raise these children due to their own poverty and lack of resources."