Visit to Flood Struck Areas

RECONSTRUCTION VISIT OF 24-04-2011 TO VILLAGE JOGIAN, DIST PESHAWER‏- Report by Oxford Central , Donators

On arrival, we were met by the village representatives at the GT road and escorted to the village where we were welcomed by the village elders and younger's alike. We, the men, were given a tour of the village and we saw the destruction at a scale which can't be described in words and could only be appreciated by seeing. Both the ladies from our group met the ladies from the village and they were also given a tour of the village by them. We established that we were only the second group to have delivered any aid to the village since the floods began. They had some food delivered once in the beginning and that was it until we turned up. I thank brother Shaukat and his team for their intense investigative work to establish the real needy and deserving people and areas. Dawat-e-Islami are also playing a vital role in visiting the remotest places to establish the needs of people, collect data and provide information to NGO's or individual donors to insure that the aid is getting to the right people. Of course it goes without saying that all this work is done voluntarily and free of charge. I was amazed to witness the amount of time brother Shaukat's team, and many others, were giving to help people. In a way, I feel guilty that I was the first one who approached brother Shaukat and sent him some money to take food to the deserving people and this opened the flood gates. But it is all for a worthy cause and imagine the blessings and rewards they all will get from Allah (s.u.t). They all are doing a sterling job and may Allah reward them in this world and in the hereafter. By far the most impressive thing was the team's effort to purchase as much as possible with the money available by shopping around, price haggling and obtaining maximum discounts etc. They used their own transport, at their own expense, to go around and the only money they paid out was for the trucks they had to hire to take food to the needy people and that was not very much. For example, a larger truck is hired at around Pak Rs.7K to 8K and smaller ones for around Pak Rs.5K. On 19^th September 2010 the truck driver was paid only Rs.8K on our request (Brother Shaukat was determined not to pay him more than Rs. 7.5K). So it can be seen that this was the only cost on delivering Rs.822,206 worth of (300) food packages which is not much at all.

There were a number of things evident to me including minimising the expenses, maximising the purchases, transparency and sense of accountability. I personally have known brother Shaukat for years and I have always had full faith in him and if I did not, then I would not have sent him my money. During this visit, it was clearly evident to me that he had more than exceeded my expectations. I would like to reassure all the donors that they have done the right thing and their aid is being received, in full, by the deserving people and what I had seen was very transparent. 

With regards to future aid requirements:

In my view the future needs of the people from the affected areas, in particular in the Noshehra region, have changed. They are now more in need of shelter than food. It was very evident during our visit that they have an adequate level of skills and workforce to start building houses for themselves. What they are badly lacking is the financial resources to obtain building materials to enable them to build houses. I saw no evidence of any support from the government for this thus far. I suggest that we pool our resources here in the UK and with the help of the team in Pakistan we can help to provide building materials to achieve the ultimate goal of re-housing as many people as we possibly can. I have already asked brother Shaukat Qureshi to find out the prices of key building materials to establish the cost per room. Of course these are my thoughts and I would welcome suggestions and ideas to establish the best way forward. It would be a shame to abandon the people at this crucial moment of need.

Above are my observations from the aforesaid visit and I have given my views about the future needs. Please feel free to email me your thoughts, comments or feedback. May Allah give us strength, courage and the will to help these people further towards their reinstated settlement.