HYDERABAD: Ms Sonia Chandio, residing in Sheedi Village, Qasimabad of Hyderabad city, was among 600 beneficiaries, mostly poor women-led households, who received ‘Paani Ramazan Food Pack’- one-month ration, distributed by Fast Rural Development Program (FRDP), following SOP and social distancing strictly late on Wednesday.
Ms Chandio said her husband is not well and presently is admitted at a local hospital for treatment. Her only son is married, having four kids, works on daily wages to earn a little amount to feed the entire family, accordig to a press release issued on Friday.
Ms. Nasreen Shaikh, another poor woman beneficiary belonging to Soomra Village near the same neighbourhood, narrates a similar situation in terms of poverty. She is the mother of four children, two sons and two daughters.
Her 14-year old son works at a private shop where he receives merely Rs3000 per month as a salary, which is not enough to feed the family. The women beneficiaries, hailing from downtrodden families had different tales and somebody cannot imagine how they are surviving without a proper source of earning.
During interviews with the women, it was observed that due to price hike many families cannot afford to buy daily use items to feed their children because of low income. They mostly belong to workers families residing in the city neighbourhoods.
Ms. Shamim Rind describes a horrible tale in which her four sons out of six are mentally retarded. She was feeling unable to portray the grim situation in which they live.
The FRDP team including volunteers played an active role to help the beneficiaries on the occasion. Paani is a US-based charity organization, which works on water and humanitarian aid in the world. FRDP has been working with Paani since 2019 and benefitted a large number of rural people, mostly providing hand pumps to have potable water.
Lack of money, lack of means and lack of access to food, all play a huge role in worldwide hunger. The communities here in remote villages of Sindh province too do not have access to potable water. In many villages, the people had their old wells for water which have turned into contaminated water due to the effects of climate variations.
Shahid Umrani, executive director of FRDP said they have also initiated similar interventions to help the families in Thar Desert, Tharparkar district, where underground water resources are depleting, leaving the people to face vulnerability.
He said it is a common cry from the province that underground water sources seem shrinking and people are facing hardships to get potable water for quenching thirst. Looking to this, he said they have initiated small projects in areas, specifically for providing water to the communities.