DONATE HERE

Back to Blighty

Friday 11 November

My trip has come to an end and it is one that I will never forget. The images of destruction and devastation which I saw will forever remain with me.

As I leave Kashmir I can’t help but think how fortunate I am. Having been here for over two weeks I return to the comfort of my home back in the UK, continuing my normal everyday life.

I can picture the Islamic Relief workers in Muzaffarabad in my mind. They literally live in the office, or should I say outside it because the buildings are not safe to sleep in. They won’t be returning to their homes, rather they will continue their work, helping to rebuild their nation and the lives of their people.

I wonder what the future holds for this region. Such was the destruction that most people in the effected areas will never really be able to return to their homes. Those buildings and homes which remain standing are littered with cracks and in an ideal world they would be demolished.

It will take years to rebuild the region and the lives of those who lost most of their worldly possessions in the quake. I hope to return here in the coming months. I pray that the situation will have improved and that people can start rebuilding their lives.

A lot will depend on how much aid is delivered to the region and how effectively it is distributed. Much will also depend on the resolve of the people; this is something I do not worry about as they have it in abundance.

In the future months it is crucial that we do not forget them. The news agenda may have shifted but their condition and plight is set to become even more perilous. The chilling Kashmiri winter is set to cover the region and the freezing conditions could take yet more lives. I for one hope and pray that I do not forget them, especially from the comfort of my warm house in the coming dark winter months.

The villages of Rawalakot

Thursday 20 October

We leave Bagh early and decide to head for Rawalakot. It is around one and a half hours drive. We have an office in the city and distribution is taking place on a daily basis.

The journey is surprisingly quick – I am used to travelling several hours at a time so this seems like a trip down the road. We arrive in Rawalakot and the city seems to be in relatively good shape.

Saira Khatun stands by the rubble of her house in Rawalakot

Fasting in the earthquake zoneThere are not the major signs of destruction that we saw in Bagh and Muzaffarabad. We get to the Islamic Relief office and are soon taken to the warehouse where aid is distributed.

The local workers assure us that their city did not totally escape. We jump into our vehicle and are taken to surrounding villages where we begin to understand what they mean.

We visit families who are left with nothing. We assure them that tent and aid will reach them in the next day or two. The village head assures the villagers that Islamic Relief has promised and designated aid for this area.

They are relived and thank us for visiting them. Some of these areas are so remote that even our 4 x 4 struggled with the terrain. So we park it at the side and make the rest of the journey to the houses on foot.

We have work to do in Muzaffarabad so we decide that we will head off straight after breaking the fast. It is a long drive and our journey is interrupted by a truck which seems to have crashed into rocks. We are delayed by an hour.

Just after midnight – five hours after starting our journey – we arrive in the Muzaffarabad office. We pitch up our tents and get ready to sleep. But I can’t sleep. It seems that some locals have decided to sing some traditional poems through the night.

IR's community network in action

Wednesday 19 October

We get up early. Water is scarce so we make our ablutions with minimal water. In the UK we are accustomed to letting the taps run without a second thought to all the water that we waste. Here, I have to make my ablutions with less than half a bottle of water.

Khushal Ahmed lost a daughter in the quake
Tragedies of BaghWe head out to a local village and meet Khushal Ahmed. He lost his daughter in the quake and his house lies in ruins. It always amazes me how despite suffering great personal tragedy, people all over this region are able to battle on. Maybe they don’t have time to grieve. We assess the needs of people in the area and then move on.

The Islamic Relief warehouse lies by the side of the river. I am told that it is a converted house which a local man donated for aid use. The warehouse is full of blankets, dates and mattresses. Village representatives come to the warehouse to get any aid their village needs.

Their names are crosschecked against a list and they are given the aid items appropriate for their village. Years of hard work in the communities mean that an extensive network of contacts and volunteers has been established between the various villages and IR. This means that aid gets to the right places and fast, and distributions are well organised and systematic.

I'm not the only person impressed with the set up. Other relief organisations that have arrived in the city are using the Islamic Relief field office as a co-ordination point.

The only tents in Bagh

Tuesday 18 October

Today we headed out to Bagh. We left Islamabad preparing to be on the road for a number of days. Water is a problem in many of the affected areas so we made sure we packed plenty of bottles.

The journey was very taxing, seven hours in total through hazardous terrain. Driving through the city the scale of the destruction becomes apparent, I look left and I look right and all I see is ruins.

Just like Muzaffarabad, people don face masks to shield themselves from the smell of rotting flesh. Hundreds if not thousands of bodies still lie buried under piles of rubble.

IR Staff at the warehouse in BaghWe arrive late in the evening at the Islamic Relief office. There is no light or running water in the building. The field staff brief us on the situation. There is a warehouse close to the office where Islamic Relief supplies from Muzaffarabad are being distributed.

It seems that we are the only relief organisation that has been able to distribute tents in the city. Tomorrow we will head out to the warehouse as well as visit some of the surrounding villages.

A day off

Sunday October 16

Today was a day to recharge the batteries. Sunday is officially a day off in Pakistan, but of course IR aid workers were in the office busy organising a vast relief operation. I did a TV interview today in Urdu. I tried to convince the interviewer that English would be easier for me, but they pointed out that more people would understand me if I spoke in Urdu.

I said a little prayer before the interview that Allah makes it easy for me and He did. I sometimes stutter when speaking Urdu but Allah loosened my tongue and it went well.

I have a busy few days ahead and hopefully on Monday I’ll head out to Bagh or Rawalakot. Some of the workers in the office also need to go so it makes sense that we go together.

However, it depends when they finish there work in the office, if it takes too long then I’ll grab one of the office drivers and make my way there myself.

The ruins of a girls' school

Saturday October 15

In Muzaffarabad, everyone sleeps outside in tents or on the streets.

Things were no different for us in the Islamic Relief office. The whole city is living in a state of fear – at night the safest place to be is out in the open away from any buildings. I began the night in a sleeping bag in the garden of the office. I was woken up suddenly by one of the field staff – there had been a tremor and we had to sleep away from the building so we all ended up in the street just outside the office grounds for the rest of the night.

The office staff and volunteers are so dedicated – they hardly sleep and convoys arrive daily which then need to be distributed. We tried to get a helicopter from the military today but unfortunately the weather conditions were too poor and, frankly, resources are thinly stretched.

Brightly coloured desks lie scattered in the remains of a school
The Determination of a survivorThere were large queues at the IR office today – a convoy had arrived and people were in desperate need. The police arrived to calm the situation down. They finally formed orderly queues and we were able to give out necessities.

I travelled up to a village called Chela Bandi in Muzzafarabad – just like other places destruction is everywhere. I came across a girls school which was in ruins. The bags and books of the pupils were still there to see. Around 150 girls perished – most of their bodies had been recovered but an entire class still remains buried underneath the rubble.

Today was the first time I visited the heart of the city and the marketplace. It’s nothing short of total destruction. I saw a wrapped body lying on the side of the road that had just been recovered – thousands still
The whole mountainside sheared off during the earthquakelie buried. The rubble is so high and so heavy – the people just don’t have the resources to move any of it.

When I last came to Muzaffarabad in March of this year I stayed at the Sangam Hotel. At the time there was much renovation taking place as well as expansion. Now it lies in ruins. I wonder what happened to the guests which were staying there? Their bodies are lying somewhere buried in the rubble, will they ever be recovered?

I leave Muzzafarabad and gaze up at a mountain whose entire face collapsed in the quake. It is a frightening site – instead of lush greenery and tress all that remains is white granite – La hawla wala Quwwata Illa Billah – There is no might and power except by Allah.

Tents: a vital commodity in Kashmir

Friday October 14

In the early hours we arrived in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. I had heard much about the destruction which had taken place here and within a few minutes it became apparent that most of the damage was irreversible. It looked like a war zone with the front of buildings ripped open exposing what was inside.

As we drove around we were looking for the headquarters of the rescue agencies which had gathered in the city. We soon found them and there were teams from all over the world camped out in colourful tents, from Turkey, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, UK and many others. Most of them were search and rescue teams trying to dig out survivors.

We then made our way to the Islamic Relief office. We were exhausted. We knew before hand that nobody was sleeping the building as it was not considered safe, in fact, every building in Muzaffarabad is considered unsafe so people sleep outside or on the streets.

More of our lorries arrived in the city later in the morning with blankets and food but it would be a challenge getting the aid to the most remote villages.

There is a severe shortage of tents and we need them fast – everybody is asking for shelter. Islamic Relief aid workers are trying every possible avenue to get hold of this vital commodity.

I visited a field which had been transformed into a helicopter pad to ferry in trauma victims from remote regions – they managed to get in over a hundred yesterday but I don’t know how well they did today.

There was an Irish news crew with us, I overheard a reporter say something quite telling to his superior on the phone: "Do people realise how big this is?"

I hope they do.

Aid convoy to Bagh

Thursday October 13

It was around 2 am in the morning when the first aftershock came. I was in the Islamabad office with some of the field staff when the building began to shake. It was a surreal experience. We all left our desks and ran out of the building immediately. Adil Al Mahi, the country co-ordinator then told us how the dogs would bark profusely minutes before a quake. There was silence on the streets – except that is for the sound of barking dogs. A few minutes later when we returned to the building we were soon out again, however this time the tremor was much lighter.

I managed to get a little bit of sleep in the morning before the early start to Kashmir. Today was the first day I would be visiting an effected area. A shipment of blankets had arrived at Islamabad airport on Wednesday and they were desperately needed wherever the earthquake had struck.

We were accompanied by a CNN news crew who were keen to film our aid convoy and speak to locals. We set off on the road that leads to Bagh and Muzaffarabad. It was hazardous, landslides had left giant rocks littering the roads making driving difficult and dangerous. However it seemed that for the most part heavy machinery had been brought in to clear the way for aid convoys to the affected areas.

While we were on the road we got word that more tremors had hit Islamabad and that schools had been evacuated. It was a reminder that the danger of another quake was far from over.

We made our way to an area 60 km from Bagh called Kwala with eight trucks fully loaded with food and 18,000 blankets. Five of the trucks continued on to Muzaffarabad while we stayed to unload three.

Many locals had made their way down from the surrounding villages – it had taken them hours and they were desperate for tents and blankets. The local Islamic Relief office had informed them of our imminent arrival and they came in hope of receiving anything that would keep them warm at night.

Unfortunately we had no tents although they would arrive soon but thankfully we had plenty of the blankets. We then came to know of a remote village were all the houses had been destroyed and where no aid had yet reached. So we jumped into a 4 x 4 fully loaded with blankets and food and made the hour trip.

We entered Surrong and found the tiny village utterly destroyed. It was the first time I had properly seen an effected area. There was noting left but ruins and I couldn’t help but stand and stare over the destruction.

Many had perished here and who would help the survivors rebuild their houses and their lives? It is virtually impossible for any aid to reach them. Sadly their village is just the tip of the ice berg. Beyond the mountains are many others which still have not been reached. Allah knows what state they are in.

Maybe I will come to know in the coming days.

Arriving in Islamabad

Wednesday October 12

I arrived in Islamabad in the early hours of the morning. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. There is an air of calm in the city, it seems that for the most part the capital escaped the ferocity of the earthquake which so devastated other regions in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

I have been speaking with staff members at the regional office in Islamabad and the situation looks bleak. Some of them were in Muzaffarabad on Saturday, the day of the disaster, and their faces bear the scares of having witnessed horrific sights.

Many are originally from the Kashmir region and they have lost members of their extended families. Everywhere I go I hear of the children lying buried beneath the rubble, unable to escape and dying with their loved ones close by, but powerless to help.

I’m set to leave for one of the disaster areas very soon, probably in a matter of hours. I’m not sure what sights await me, I’m beginning to build a mental picture through the stories I am hearing, but of course I won’t know until I get there. The staff at the office are working non-stop.

In Ramadhan they normally leave the office at 2.30 pm but at the moment they are at the desks until about 2 am. They have urgent work to do and lives to save and their dedication gives me hope. A shipment arrived today with urgent medical supplies and blankets and I will probably go out with them when it is distributed in a matter of hours.