Samina can still bring herself to smile, but she cannot hide the pain that is still there one year after the earthquake that ripped through Pakistan's remote North West Frontier Province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Absent-mindedly tracing the pattern of dark henna on her hand, this twenty-something young widow's thoughts are far away.
After re-marrying just a few weeks ago, Samina and her one-year-old daughter are still adjusting to their new family and surroundings."
October 8 changed my life so completely, I am still struggling with it," Samina said. "How can I forget my husband, whom I loved so much, and a year-and-a-half daughter, who were buried alive in the earthquake?"
"The jolt was so sudden, we didn't get time to say or do anything," said Samina's mother, Sakina Begum.
She now makes money to scrape by working as domestic help in the temporary camp where she lives in Muzaffarabad, the provincial capital. Meanwhile, the compensation of US$ 1,666 given to all widows was divided equally between Samina and her mother-in-law, and the initial US$ 416 given as immediate relief was also given to her mother-in-law.
Women typically make up 75% of the people living in camps for those displaced by disasters or conflict. Women usually take on caring for orphans, the elderly and the disabled, in addition to caring for the survivors in their own families, and thus cannot generate any of their own income.
Many of the people living in temporary camps have one very urgent need: new tents. Though some long-term shelters have been rebuilt, one of the most urgent needs now is new tents to replace the old, as what is expected to be a much harsher winter than the last approaches.
[Excerpt of an article by Zofeen T. Ebrahim, Caritas International]
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