Life Wiped out by a Scarf

Training participants and I

My first work assignment for 2011 was to go to Pakistan to support  an international  non government organisation(NGO) with training for a nutritional programme that they had started  in the previous 6 months. 

People may remember the awful floods that took place in parts of Pakistan last year which affected  and still are affecting over 50 milion people. Many were displaced and lost  their homes and  belongings. This was followed by a cholera outbreak  in the flood affected areas which exacerbated an already high prevalence of acute malnutrition in under five children in Pakistan. Recent survey results had  revealed a  severe acute malnutrition with a prevalence of 6% in one of the flood affected provinces – Sindh.In addition to the  training  the NGO   wanted me to carry out a rapid assessment of the existing  nutrition programme (Community – based Management of Acute Malnutrition -CMAM)

Breastfeeding Corners in flood displaced  camps

 

I was brought up  and lived in what was more or less in outer East London , that bit of suburb  between the East end and Romford in Essex. So I sort of grew up with people from Pakistan and Bangladesh. But I knew little about them or their country.Then came the stereo typing post 7/11 where Pakistan was associated with Al Qaeeda and fundamentalist warring Islam. In addition I had worked in Saudi Arabia and had experienced first hand the extreme form of  Wahabi Islam regime there. So when I arrived to Pakistan I was pleasantly suprised to find that from an Islam point of view it was not too strict at all. I had sort of expected it would be like Saudi Arabia and had not been looking forward to that at all.

And so I arrived to Islamabad the capital of Pakistan situated up  in the north of Pakistan

Islamabad is in  middle of the mountains with kites wheeling permanently overhead. I found it wierd to see such a bird – relatively rare in Ireland so prolific here – like  pigeons in London. Then I headed to the province of Sindh followed by Punjab  to carry out the trainings and assessments.

Just before my arrival to Sindh province  a terrible tragedy had occured at the NGO  base office where they worked in the main town of Sukkar. Just outside the office is a railway track open for anyone to walk across. There is a little climb up on to it and it is all very open so you can see trains coming from way back. But the trains scream their way through at speed making the office shudder and setting everyone’s teeth on edge. A  few days before my arrival  one of the young  Pakistani female doctors on the  nutrition team had been killed by a train just outside the office.  So on the evening the NGO  Health and Nutrition Co ordinater  and I arrived we met a subdued and traumatised team. I expected that the training would be very flat and quiet  and braced myself for that. I pondered on how she had been killed by the train. She would have seen a train coming miles away. Now there was a barbed wire fence up alongside the length of track that ran outside the office– it had been put up just after the accident.

I had my security briefing the next morning  in the NGO office  with an ex military Pakistan officer now employed as a security officer . The base office in Sindh province is in the main town of the province called Sukkar. Sukkar is a very interesting town if you happen to be an engineer  – it is built on the banks of several canals. The Brits constructed these amazing bridges and various gadgets all meant to control the flow of the canals.As well as my security briefing  the security officer proceeded to give me an account of how many arches were contained  in the bridges, how long they were,how many bolts had been installed etc etc. I am not very technically minded that way so while he related all the facts and figures I  looked out of the window at the barbed wire fence along the track glistening all new and fresh in the sun  and wondered how on earth the young doctor had managed not to see the train coming as one could see a long way down the track. The security officer  followed my gaze, lowered his own gaze and voice and suddenly  starting telling me about the awful accident. 

It had happened in the morning just as the office was opening. The young doctor had been given a lift by her father and as she got out  of the car she went to cross the track towards  the office,the car shielding an oncoming train. She had  actually managed to get across the track OK.But at the last moment her long billowing scarf ( as worn by all the women here)   curled back into the cross wind generated by the passing train. The scarf  got caught up in the train and pulled her back…… I had no doubt of what happened next.  My eyes filled with tears and when the security officer saw this, he reverted back to official mode , thrust a list of emergency contact numbers into my hand and so I  bundled myself and my sheaf of papers  me out of the office.

And so I got on with the job in hand in Sindh – visiting some of the CMAM  programmes in the flood affected areas and carrying the  CMAM training.

Groupwork during training in Sindh

 

This is where my admiraton for the the people of Pakistan developed. Despite having  witnessed an awful tragedy and being obviously traumatised by it, the nutrition team   threw themselves into the training and it became one of the most fun, inspirational  trainings I have ever done.  No moping around and sitting with sorrowful faces or bursting into tears – or becoming bitter with the world.

Everyone was high after the training and on the evening before my departure back to Islamabad the capital of Pakistan I met up with the team in the office. W e all milled around  saying our goodbyes and doing our last minute bits. They all pumped my hand thanking me for the training and my input into the nutrition programme.  It was a really good moment – a really,really good moment – the sort you want to snatch up  and keep as a comfort blanket until the next good moment arrives. Then  as  usual an oncoming train shrieked  by  on that  railway track outside the office  throwing dust onto the new barbed wire fence. Everyone went quiet and although not one eye  shifted – suddenly we were all looking at the enlarged photo of the dead girl up on the wall  in the nutrition office  -  warm , intelligent eyes gazing steadily at us all bustling around .And in her  open, confident, calm gaze,   the gift of youth with all the  promise of a  future  life unrolling – her career as a doctor, meeting her partner, getting married , being a mother  – those landmarks of life all  suddenly  halted by the tardy fluttering of a capricious scarf on a dusty morning  at  the beginning of another working day.

I am still holding on to that good moment – for  who knows when one  second too late  is going to make all the difference and your life in a single moment may   depend on the length of your scarf.