From 2005 Kashmir Earthquake Fundraising to Funds Collection for Pakistan Flood Relief 2022

For the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, my good friend Rebecca Williams and I, now lovingly referred to as Grandma Becky collected about US $ 8 or 9,000.00. Rebecca and I were first WFP colleagues , where I first met her,  and then worked together at UNDP. 

Rebecca was very passionate about Liberians 'giving back' as they had been receiving help and aid for years. Rebecca is a polio victim since childhood and, although now she has an electric wheelchair , in fact she has a couple of them now, sent to her by her family living in the US, in those days she relied on crutches to get around. 

She and I went up and down on Randall and Broad Streets to ask for donations from shopkeepers. In those days, there were mainly Indian and Lebanese stores in central Monrovia. I remember even Liberian pedestrians gave us small amounts of LD which we gratefully received. She and I spoke on UNMIL Radio and talked about our fund raising efforts. It was Rebecca who passionately asked the public to contribute to our efforts. We also attended the Christmas Day service at Providence Baptist Church and collected funds. We put together other social events and collected funds. 

Looking back, I'm generally overwhelmed with Rebecca's passion and energy. I'm proud of our partnership and, that we achieved that together. 

I added money from salary to the amount we collected and donated a whole sum of US $ 10, 000 to 2 local NGOs in Pakistan. During my visit to family in December or was it January, I took my younger sister on a road trip to an entirely flattened Balakot. We visited some relief camps. For me, it was clear even in those days that money should be given to a local organisation rather than an international one, despite that I was working in the UN. After consultations with friends, I gave the funds to 2 local NGOs : US $ 5000 each. 

I told Kavita this story as I'm collecting funds for the Floods in Pakistan.  Since the early 2000s, there is a small Pakistani community here in Monrovia that is comprised of salaried workers mainly. There is also an Ahamdiyya Mission here who have a Mosque, a clinic, and vocational schools. I have friends in the salaried class and, some of them have become family friends. 

Amna and Qasim are from South Punjab and, despite that Qasim is a PTI supporter, somehow we have managed to stay friends. We decided that we should collect funds from within our own Pakistani community , given that we are earning hard currency here. I put the word out in expat groups. We have collected USD $ 1500 so far. Qasim reached out to Pakistanis working here. I reached out to client and expat WhatsApp groups I'm part of. 

I set out to get together with the Pakistan community to, as an act of solidarity amongst ourselves, to identify together as a group of people belonging to that state, and to send help back home as a duty and as a community. A part of me feels that this is an achievement and, it always feel good to do something that is not for one's own material /social benefit but for community. Another egoistic part feels this is a small amount compared to the bigger one I raised with my friend all those years ago. 

Qasim said that many people have sent help back home already. Given that one third of the country is submerged and, many people have links to rural areas too, everyone has been affected. Either our family members or someone we knew has been affected by these floods. 

Questions from Western friends have started rubbing me the wrong way: "Do you have family and friends who have been affected?" Yes, given the vast scale of these floods we have someone or the other who has been affected. And much more importantly, we are grief stricken that our country is submerged climate changed induced floods and rains. We are full of rage that the masses are suffering for global emissions they did not produce.  My non Western friends (who don't live in Liberia) have not asked me "Do you have family and friends who have been affected?" but offered straight up help. They have asked me where to send money to and offered to send funds to me since they know I'm collecting funds.   

My first reaction has been one of annoyance and, is in line with patterns one observes in relations with Western friends and people, who one has to constantly educate about our countries, our history, our culture, and most importantly our intellect and emotions.  

Question of where to send the funds has been a good one to explore. Having joined Feminism/Progressive groups in Pakistan, I would have liked to donate directly to WDF. They are collecting Internationally through a Go Fund Me page and, domestically. They have political workers with good outreach, especially in Sindh, I understand. So, I encouraged my sister friends to contribute their and help to raise feminist voices. I was so happy to see their name keeps popping up everywhere. There are many other leftists organising relief camps. There's Edhi , of course, a name that everyone respects. Mahwari Justice is a new group and first ever to focus on menstrual relief during these floods.  Pakistan Twitter alone has performed brilliantly in terms of transforming itself into a site of funds collection, dissemination of information and analysis/commentary of climate change.  Al Khidmat 's name came up a lot and even leftist and progressive friends praised their work. 

So, it was decided we would send funds to Al Khidmat to reach a middle ground: I would not want to send funds to PTI and the community would not support giving funds to feminists. 

Watching the devastating coverage of the floods in Pakistan, seeing videos of structures dissolving like sugar into the torrential floods, and images of suffering depressed me to no end. The image of 5 brothers  waiting for help in the middle of gushing water was haunting. Later we learned they died. Apparently KP Chief Minister's helicopter was reserved for Imran Khan's use. PTI has rejected these claims. 

I read a post by a friend who said he had to leave his village to escape the flood waters and his biggest grief is to leave back books who he hopes will be safe when he comes back. For me, the idea of losing my books would be utterly devastating. I really felt awful thinking about my friend's anxiety over losing beloved books, books one made notes in, studied in, or read for pleasure. 

There was a video of cows being washed away in speeding flood waters and, there was a voice achingly recording the footage with an immense helplessness and grief. 

These images (and so much more we are too scared to see) haunted me. The action of fund collection provided some respite. The critique of climate change as a consequence of capitalism, the floods as a consequence of imperial river management, the mismanagement of state resources and criminal governance also gives one a respite from the helplessness and feelings of grief.