The villages that were affected here in Badin from the damaging floods last monsoon season have recovered remarkably well. I was pleased to see during my recent visit to Tajeli village, one of the badly flooded villages in our parish that the villages has moved on and is rebuilding themselves. Although there is a lot or rehabilitation work that’s pending, the villagers are back working in the fields preparing to plant the next crops. A lot of them are getting work with the rice harvesting season now upon us. We are very fortunate that a lot of the rice fields nearby survived the flooding and as a consequence, many of our people have been able to get some income for themselves.
Almost all of the villages that were affected in the parish are back to their normal routine except a few that still live in the makeshift grass houses on the road side. Housing is an issue because many of our people are living on land own by Landlords thus, they cannot build concrete or permanent houses. Unfortunately, it’s a challenge that is beyond our control unless something is done like purchasing of land, or relocate families to Church own land and rebuild there.
In Badin, we are very fortunate to have received overwhelming support from Columbans, Columban supporters and Pakistanis here and abroad especially from England. Caritas were among the first responders and distributed generously. St. Joseph Convent School in Karachi run by the Daughters of the Cross Sisters have donated food rations, clothes and shoes. Divine Hope, a Charity organization run by Daniel Bashir and a group of youths from Karachi distributed 80 packages of food rations too. They also conducted some medical and Hygiene awareness during the distribution.
Reaching out to us here as well was Rev Deacon Stephen Khokhar and his Pakistani parishioners from England. This was made possible through our school principal Emmanual Lal. With the generosity of friends, donors and benefactors, it has enabled us to support as many affected families as we can, with some receiving more than ones. So far, we have distributed 490 packages to 280 families and we have another distribution planned. With that, we thank you our generous benefactors for continuing to support us and helping us in our efforts to reach out to our affected parishioners as much as possible.
