PrintWomen relocate their livestock from their flooded homes, hauling as much feed as they can carry for miles in the rain
( Kelly Holz / )
Pakistan woman's rights activist provides shelter for refugees in schools, barns.
Women relocate their livestock from their flooded homes, hauling as much feed as they can carry for miles in the rain
( Kelly Holz / )MEERWALA, Pakistan — In the early hours of Tuesday, Aug. 3, Mukhtar Mai was awakened by the arrival of hundreds of villagers at her home. All were seeking refuge from the flood that was devastating villages and cities all over Pakistan.
She promptly roused the staff and volunteers of her self-made NGO, Mukhtar Mai Women’s Organization, and converted her entire property into a makeshift refugee camp.
For the villagers of Meerwala and the surrounding areas of rural Southern Punjab, the home of Mukhtar Mai is continually an oasis of safe haven.
Mukhtar Mai, now an international figure, gained her prominence as a champion of women’s rights in 2002 when she challenged the Pakistani gender status quo, demanding reparations for the violence and trauma of the state-sanctioned gang rape she suffered.
Where before women were expected to kill themselves if they experienced such an act of dishonor, Mukhtar rose to fight for the rights of not only herself, but also of all the Pakistani women living in oppression. She used the government funds allocated to her to open Mukhtar Mai’s Girls Model School, operating under the banner of “ending oppression through education.”
Mukhtar Mai Women’s Organization, or MMWO, now operates two girls’ schools, a school for boys, and a shelter home and resource center for battered women. The entire property, including the adjacent police station, was immediately opened to the hundreds of families from nearby villages whose homes had been devastated by the flood.
The women’s shelter, which had been created to house women fleeing violence and abuse and seeking the protection of Mukhtar Mai’s compassion, was opened to over twenty women and their accompanying children.
The woman and children who had been residing in the shelter before the crisis were safely relocated to Mukhtar’s personal home.
The boys’ school was completely converted into a shelter, with five to ten families crowding into each of the individual classrooms. As the steady stream of families continued to make their way to Mukhtar’s property throughout the day, the personal homes of her brothers and their families were additionally opened to the villagers.
Women with sacks of feed on their heads carried babies and pulled cattle through the downpour. Men carried cots and food, and a parade of donkeys packed with families’ entire meager possessions continued to process through the gates. “This is all we have left,” women continued to report to the staff of MMWO. “Our crops are ruined. Our houses are completely destroyed. This is all we have left.”
The dairy farm run by MMWO was emptied of its cattle, which were then tied outside in the rain along with the hundred or so livestock saved by the families from their flooded properties. Families then occupied the dairy stalls, crowding on top of piles of animal feed to keep warm. The rain outside continued to drum on.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/study-abroad/100824/pakistan-floods-victims-refugees-mukhtar-mai-relief-organizations
