Week 5

The government here has this week launched a new offensive against supporters of a pro-Taliban militant in the Swat valley (NWFP). Mingaora/Saidu Sharif, the administrative headquarters for this district, is around 80 miles or so to the NNW of Islamabad as the helicopter gunship flies. The spread of Taliban-esque groups throughout the North West Frontier Province is not encouraging. Rather than being contained by existing military actions near the Afghan border the violently enforced diktats of a few are helping to export their hardline take on life to more and more villages and towns in the province. If this spread continues - and most people I talk to seem resigned to this fact, at least in the short term - it may well make it difficult to travel through the area to view the worksites in Jared. There are lots of black-humoured jokes flying around concerning the Taliban onslaught but whereas back home this phenomenon is just a footnote on the nightly news here of course it is all too real and the general feeling is that the outcome of events such as those in Swat will directly influence the lives of many Pakistanis and even, some believe, engender a restructuring of the borders of this country. This process of 'evolution' as it was termed, may or may not come to pass, in the meantime however Islamabad is well within fiery rhetoric-spitting distance of the NWFP border and whilst its very easy to feel isolated in the city such close proximity is keenly felt.

Still, work continues and recently that has meant sitting down and putting digital pen to digital paper. Given the differing plot-sizes available to each beneficiary, it has become neccessary to develop two new, smaller house types within the structural framework governed by the requirements laid out by ERRA (Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation). As each house is an autonomous, pre-designed unit subsquently placed on a plot, these new options alongside the existing approved design provide some flexibility when it comes to choosing the right house type for each plot and the size of the family who are to live there. The completed drawings will now be submitted for approval to NESPAK, the technical advisory body that work on behalf of ERRA and the government of Pakistan. Financial matters, inevitably, have also become an issue - our existing house type has come in at a greater cost than that initially allowed for by Muslim Aid - so by providing houses that are smaller in height and area whilst at the same time co-ordinating the bulk-buying of materials such as sand, cement and CGI sheet we are hoping to see an overall reduction in expenditure.


Over the past few weeks I have had the chance to see some of the work that Muslim Aid undertake alongside construction projects of the type A4A are directly involved in. These occasions have included a Ramadan fast-breaking meal laid on for members of the local area, or at least some of their number - in true Pakistan style there were no women to be seen benefiting from this generosity! - and a post Eid present giving ceremony and trip to the park for orphaned children. There is currently very little in the way of social services provided for the people of Pakistan by the Government of Pakistan so in the meantime it is organisations such as Muslim Aid that are doing what they can to fill the gap.