In Sindh province, Pakistan, huts are built with bamboo roofs. Reeds and clay serve to insulate from the great heat, up to 50 degrees Celsius in summer, but they are not roofs that can withstand the rain.
In these very poor dwellings live the landless workers, at the mercy of the landlords: when the master sends them away they take with them the beams and bamboo canes, which they can reuse to build new huts elsewhere. They were the most affected by the floods six months ago .
“The water has reached this point,” says one of the farmers, “A boy saw it coming, ran into the village and warned us all. We barely had time to escape up the mountain with the elders, the many children and our livestock. We were there for a month and a half. During this time three people died from snake bites, because everything that could walk or crawl had fled there. Now we are back in our village and have to start all over again.”
Bringing a first aid medical camp to these villages means having the possibility of distributing medicines and treatments that would otherwise be impossible for those who live in these areas. And it is precisely in one of these communities – a five-hour drive from the city of Karachi – that one of the medical camps organized thanks to the funds raised by the Emergency Coordination of the Focolare Movement, AMU and AFN has arrived.
The medical camp stopped for a day and the medical team was hosted in a house composed of several rooms: an improvised study with only two chairs and a shelf on which to place the medicines. An adjoining room was reserved for women, here visits were carried out and also some training was done to prevent further diseases.
As soon as the villagers saw the team arriving, they immediately rushed to be examined.
One of the most common diseases in Pakistan is diabetes and many elderly people have leg ulcers and foot sores, which require treatment. Dr. Saad, a general practitioner and pediatrician, a member of the team, immediately took care of them. There are also many small patients: malnourished children, with stomach and intestinal problems.
Dr. Saad listened patiently to everyone and tried to relieve everyone’s suffering. Two nurses were dispensing medicines as directed by the doctor, while Shafaqat (the other nurse in the medical team) was trying to explain the dosage of the prescribed medicine and how to administer it. This was no easy task. Not everyone speaks the national language – Urdu – and Sindhi is a foreign language for those coming from Karachi.
The flow of patients did not stop throughout the day. In the evening, the camp was dismantled and the team returned to Karachi, traveling on roads left in terrible condition by the floods.
(The article is taken from a report by Julia Ritter, of the Focolare Movement in Karachi and Hyderabad, Pakistan)