Food brings relief to hungry, flood-weary families in Sindh

Life was looking brighter for Mumtaz, her husband Sarfaraz and their six children. Their landlord had given them a small mud-brick house and land to cultivate. Sarfaraz was making preparations for the marriages of his three older children. He had to take out loans for the marriages but at least they had a crop.

When Sarfaraz died unexpectedly 18 months ago, the family had to pull together – not only to overcome the grief but to generate an income to put food on the table. The family’s loans also had to be repaid so Mumtaz’s two elder sons left their education to work in the fields and take care of the landlord’s cattle.

For his work with the cattle, Imdad would earn PKR 2000/ month (US$22/month). “My sons have small children, their siblings and me to take care of and the income of both brothers is not enough to run the house, so I also started working in the landlord’s field,” explains 36-year-old Mumtaz, looking back at what appeared to be a new beginning.

But as Mumtaz says poetically, another script was written for their lives.

“The torrential rains in September 2011 washed away all of the hopes and the happiness which were about to knock the door of our home; all those hopes went back to being worries again. And in spite of happiness knocking the doors of our house; troubles, sorrows and difficulties entered into my house!”

The floods struck her home village of Baki Khan, located 170km from Sukkur in Sindh province, wiping out all of the crops.

“My house and belongings all vanished in the flood,” recalls Mumtaz. Mumtaz’s family lived under a plastic sheet to protect themselves against the rain and sun for almost two months.

“We had to go hungry most of the time,” Mumtaz shares.

When World Vision began a food distribution in her village, Mumtaz recalls the feeling of relief.

“Food provided by World Vision has changed the lives of families here. It relieved us of a lot of worries because we had enough food to feed ourselves at least for a month. We don’t have to think about how we will manage to feed our children”.

“I’m happy today because I have been able to properly feed my family”, smiling in appreciation at the rice and pulses that she received from the World Vision team.

She explains, “This food has saved our money and we can use the money saved for other things like medicines, clothes or buying any utensils etc.... I pray floods like this will not happen again to Pakistan, but appreciate the efforts of World Vision, and I am thankful to them (World Vision).”

World Vision has distributed 50kg of rice, 30kg of wheat, 8kg of pulses, 36 packets of biscuits, 22 packets of plumpy’nut* and 4.5 litres of cooking oil to some 20,000 households in Sindh since the floods hit last year.

“I do not feel hungry anymore,” says six-year-old Abdul Razzak, who is one of the many young children that are benefitting from the food distribution.

Today Abdul is a very different boy to when he was suffering a fever as the river water rushed into his house. Together with his parents he had to stumble over mud and stones to reach dry land.

Tired, hungry and penniless, Abdul Razzak’s family had no choice but to take a loan and buy themselves food and medicines. ”In the first few days, we ate only once a day,” remembers his father, Imdad.

“We are having meals three times a day and eat these biscuits with tea,” says Abdul Razzak.

Although still suffering from the loss of all their belongings, Abdul Razzak’s family has been able to eat full meals for at least one month.

World Vision’s food distributions are helping 141,193 people– more than 100,000 of these are children like Abdul Razzak. While they are an emergency intervention, they aim to ensure children are cared for and enjoy good health.

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Additional information:

Mumtaz is a widow with six children (Pervaiz* Ahmed 24, Imdad Ali 22, Frazana 20, Zahid Ahmed 16, Rukhsana 14 and Jawaid Ahmed 12). Pervaiz, Imdad and Farazana are married. Pervaiz has a daughter of 8 months; Imdad has a son 6 years and a daughter of 1 month.

Plumpy’nut is frequently used as a treatment for emergency malnutrition cases. It supports rapid weight gain, which can make the difference between life and death for a young child. The product is also easy for children to eat since they can feed themselves the soft paste. The fortified peanut butter-like paste contains a balance of fats, carbohydrates and proteins (macronutrients), and vitamins and minerals (micronutrients). Source- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy'nut