As a child, the prominent countries of the world always fascinated me. They were always in the news—China was becoming a global power to reckon with, the U.S. was influencing the world through culture and politics, while Brazil bagged every soccer world-cup. These countries were household names everywhere. As for Pakistan, no one really knew where or what that was. Secretly, I wished that I would live to see a day when Pakistan would make all the headlines.
Within the past few years my wish came true, but for all the wrong reasons. We had an earthquake in 2005 that killed tens of thousands, then a flood in 2007, which affected thousands of people and, last year, the Internally Displaced Persons Crisis generated by the war on terror. But we are a brave and strong-willed people. Whenever a catastrophe strikes us, we keep our faith in a better tomorrow and an even better day after.
However, the calamity that struck Pakistan on July 20th this year was different. Yes, it was another flood crisis. But the statistics proved that this crisis was much worse than the previous ones: billions of dollars lost in damages, over 1500 dead, 21 million homeless, one fifth of Pakistan under water. It was the worst humanitarian crisis since the creation of the U.N.
People in Pakistan were aware of the intensity of the disaster, and they started contributing as much as they could in their own capacity. To demonstrate how committed all Pakistanis are towards donating to the flood relief I’ll give you an example of an incident: A small boy was begging for money on the street so he could feed himself. When someone gave him 1000 rupees, he was delighted because that would buy him 100 meals. However, what the kid did was surprising and inspiring. He bought a sandwich, and donated the rest of the money to the flood relief donation box. When asked why he did that, he said it felt wrong to hold on to so much money when you have a full stomach and others are starving to death.
Such examples of generosity are powerful, but the scale of the disaster is so big that it cannot be overcome by Pakistan alone. Without substantial international support, recovery will remain but an illusion.
Unfortunately, as the statistics regarding aid began to unfold, they revealed the relatively low level of support from the international community, especially the United States. I wondered what had gone wrong, because Americans were some of the most generous people I had ever come across. As I arrived back on campus in August, I began to find answers to my question. Most people knew that there was something going on in Pakistan, but they were unaware of the scale of the crisis.
It was then that the Pakistani Students’ Association at Wesleyan University decided to launch the Wesleyan Pakistan Flood Relief Initiative to increase awareness about the crisis on campus and to organize fund-raising events. Our opening fund-raising event is a panel discussion and dinner with faculty on Oct 28th, which will be followed by a concert featuring Omar Offendum at Eclectic on Oct 29th.
On behalf of all Pakistanis, I would like to express our gratitude to all the volunteers for their selfless commitment and to the Cardinal Technology Center for offering their space to us for fund-raising. I would also like to thank the administration and faculty for their continuous support of our initiative. We have raised over $2,000 already, but we still have a long way to go.
To those who haven’t been able to sign up for the Initiative or haven’t have the time to do so, you can still help us organize fund-raising events, spread the word about the events and the crisis, or, at the very least, try to attend the events.
For those of you who are visiting Wesleyan during Homecoming and would like to donate, we have set up a donation box at the Usdan Marketplace’s entrance near the Cashier’s register. Also, the Cardinal Technology Center will be selling T-shirts on behalf of the Pakistan Flood Relief Initiative.
The power of our contributions is huge. When we donate the one or two dollars that we would have spent on a soda, it feeds a family for a day. So, I ask all of you to do as much as you can in your own personal capacity to help Pakistan in this moment of need.
Note: The Pakistan Flood Relief Initiative will donate all proceeds to Red Cross, Oxfam and Islamic Relief.
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