“We didn’t know the flood was coming. It was night-time and we were asleep in our rooms,” says 43-year-old Rukhtaj, a mother of six. “Some people came and woke us up. They warned us that the water is rising. So we grabbed our children as quickly as possible and ran.
“We left all of our things so we lost everything. Still, we were very lucky…maybe only 20 minutes passed from when we were woken up to when the water came.”
The campaign to get a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions launched just six months ago. But what a six months! Here are some highlights from the diary of a Robin Hood Tax campaigner….
February: starting strong
“A bullet hit my head and I had to be operated several times…There are still bullet splinters in my head but I cannot afford the necessary treatment… I hope that this violence will not be repeated. The government has to pay attention to us. There has to be a court to try the perpetrators and a truth commission. If the perpetrators are not tried, they will feel encouraged to repeat what they have done, maybe to do even worse.”
This is a young woman’s testimony of what happened to her at a massacre during a peaceful demonstration in May 1999 in Lhokseumawe, northern Aceh. On that fateful day the Indonesian military killed more than 50 people and wounded more than 100. The perpetrators have never been brought to justice.
Donate to CAFOD’s ongoing emergency work
It was with mixed emotions that I stepped off the plane in Toussaint L’Ouverture international airport in Haiti. I was hoping to notice visible improvements in living conditions. But I’d heard that the number of camps had increased since March from 750 to over 1,200. To me this indicated that things were not going as smoothly as planned.
Reginald, the young driver for our partner Catholic Relief Services that picked me up from the airport, knows a lot of short cuts through Port-au-Prince and showed off this knowledge on the journey back from the airport.
In search of clean drinking water in flood affected areas of Rajan Pur. Samuel Clement/Caritas Pakistan
When the tidal wave hit Rahimyar Khan in the southern part of the Punjab province, Pakistan, it ripped everything away – communities, homes, and livelihoods.
The people in the region have retreated to dams which are kilometres long and wait for help there. There’s water to the left, there’s water to the right. The villages have been destroyed completely.
The fields are still flooded. The muddy water sticks to the mango trees. At least 90 percent of the working population earned their living with agriculture, such as sugar cane, cotton, rice and mangos. What was once a fertile landscape is now suffocated by water and masses of mud.
A large number of goats and cows, which represented the basic income of many people, have died in the floods. Only some of the water buffalos survived. The people still depend on food packages which are being distributed by Caritas. Too many children still do not get enough or nothing to eat.
“The hygienic conditions for the people are disastrous. The children suffer the most. Almost all of them have skin diseases, their bodies are covered in insect bites and they are malnourished or suffer from diarrhoea. Good medical and hygienic care is urgently needed,” said Monika Kalcsics of Caritas Austria.
Within the district Rahimyar Khan, Our partners have distributed food packages, water purifying tablets, medication and tents to 500 families, and hope to reach another 500 families in the next few days. The tents are on elevated, narrow causeways. Some areas are broad and dry enough so a number of tents can be positioned next to each other.
People are also being given information on simple hygienic measures which can prevent health risks, especially the correct use of water purifying tablets.
It is still a huge task logistically to reach all the people in the flood areas. In large parts of the country, it’s still not possible to get aid through to people.
Thomas Preindl of Caritas Austria, also in the area, said, “We hope that the water recedes so we can get to these areas. It will still take weeks and months to do so. We still need every support we can get: every single donation is important.”
Please donate to our Pakistan Appeal>>
This article is an edited version or an article which first appeared on the Caritas blog.
“We have just enough food to last for a few more weeks but after that I don’t know how we will cope” said Dhani Buksh a flood survivor from the southern province of Sindh in Pakistan.
“We have lost everything. Our home is gone. I am seventy and my wife is seventy one. She is ill and we are living in a tent at the side of the road,” he said. “I had planted a cotton crop which was due to be harvested soon. My whole family – sons, daughters and grandchildren, 35 people in all – were depending on the crop. Now it is under water. All of it is destroyed.”
“We borrowed the money for the seeds and fertiliser to plant the crop and now it is gone. We cannot pay back the money and have nothing with which to start again. We hope the government will compensate us but I think this is very unlikely. I don’t know what we will do.”
Dhani is one of millions who have lost everything in the floods. All of his neighbours from the village of Chhachhar are in the same situation. Our partners will be providing seeds and fertiliser for this community when the waters subside so they can feed themselves and their families.
This province is one of the poorest parts of Pakistan and there are real fears that because so many crops have been destroyed in the area there will not be enough food for people in the months to come.
According to Saleem Lashari who works for a local resource centre supported by Caritas, “We are not only trying to deal with the ongoing emergency but trying to think ahead to how we can help people start again. They have lost their houses, crops and livestock. It will take years to recover from this.”
This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on the Trόcaire website.
Rcovering the wisdom of Archbishop Romero for our time.
A joint CAFOD Leeds and Leeds Diocesan Justice and Peace day with
Rt.Rev. Arthur Roche, Bishop of Leeds
Bishop Arthur will share his experiences of being in El Salvador for the 30th anniversary of Archbishop Romero’s martyrdom.
We will then explore how we can stand ‘Arm in Arm with the Poor’ in our Diocese.
‘We want a church that is truly arm-in-arm with the poor people of El Salvador… This is how we come to understand more clearly the mystery of Christ who becomes more human and becomes poor for us.’ Archbishop Romero 1980
10am – 4pm
St Benedict’s Parish Centre
Abberford Road, Gaforth, LS25 1PX
Please bring lunch to share – drinks provided
To book a place ring 0113 2759302 (CAFOD Leeds) or 0113 2618055 (Leeds J&P)
or email leeds@cafod.org.uk or shelagh@leedsjp.org.uk
Holy Family High School, Carlton presented a cheque for £2,580.69 to Fr. Blaise Agwom, from Jos, Nigeria after a moving end of term liturgy. The students have been fundraising all year to provide water filters for rural communities in Nigeria. The CAFOD market was just one of the many fundraising events. Students brought in a Fair trade product to wear non-uniform clothes. After the vigil mass at St. Mary’s Selby, which the students had prepared, the fair trade goods were sold raising awareness and more money! Well done and thanks for a magnificent effort.
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