IRC’s Khairpur and Hyderabad camps: Eid report by Sadiqa Salahuddin

Eid distribution at IRC camp - Sadiqa Salahuddin (in cap)

Sadiqa Salahuddin, a dear family friend, has been working in the Khairpur area for over a decade, providing education to children there (mostly girls) through her Indus Resource Centre (IRC). Since the floods hit, they have turned their energies towards relief work.

Here’s an update from her, received this morning, about Eid, the festival that marks the end of the month of fasting, in the IRC camps:

September 14, 2010
Dear Friends,

Eid in a Tent City was a unique experience of my life. I do not remember seeing so many happy faces around on Eid as I saw this year. This might seem contrary to what we are hearing and watching on television about the deprivation and gloom among internally displaced persons (IDPs) on Eid. I have no doubt about media portraying realities but what I am saying is real too. A young journalist has captured Eid in our Tent City in Tribune. Please see this report Learning to say ‘I love you’ Continue reading

Four main camps around Karachi

On the side of Super Highway, children running after a Suzuki with relief goods (not managed). Photos: Yasir Husain

Received this information in an email from Yasir Husain, Karachi, Aug 24, 2010:

A C-130 from Jacobabad airlifted a group of stranded people to Karachi. These people are in a number of camps I visited in the Hawkesbay / Keamari / Manghopir area. One has 650 tents, and is generally secure and well catered for. The area has electricity and a tent hospital with beds.

Another camp close by is in a girls’ college on the main Hawkesbay Rd. The college was built by PPP government 15 years ago. It never opened or finished, but still gets additions. The refugees from upper Sindh housed here are being well looked after, but say they were never told that they were being taken to Karachi, or Mangopir. Ambulances and police are on standby, and district officers are on duty. There was an anti-mosquito spray at the college, which had a generator on standby, but no electricity. Continue reading

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