Hope leads to a better future

We would like to share this story told by Wazir Jan; one of those eligible for support activities in Dera Ismail Khan. Wazir Jan is 85 years old and living with his wife and two sons.

“My family had been living under very poor circumstances for many years. However, we did used to own our house and a small plot of land in the village we belonged to. There was enough water to cultivate our land. We lived happily at that time.
However, one day at the mosque in the neighborhood, it was announced that the Pakistan army would conduct an operation against the anti-government armed group in our village. My mind went blank because we didn’t even have money for the transportation expenses to evacuate. When we evacuated, I saw that the air raids had destroyed our house. At that moment, I lost all of my hopes and dreams.
Moreover, because I had to walk to the shelter, I could hardly take anything with me, and had no choice but to leave my entire belongings behind in our destroyed house.
Although we moved to D.I.Khan at the beginning of the evacuation, there were no shelters around that area, so we relied on a distant relative in Daraban. We lived hopelessly in poverty for half a year.
During the heat wave in August 2010, we fled our tent to the bank of an irrigation channel to escape the sudden storm and heavy rain. The flood swept all of my belongings and crushed our hut. Then we were back to the condition we were in when we evacuated.
Currently, we live in a hut made from grass and wood. It is extremely small so the whole family can barely fit inside at once. As my children are too young to work, I support my family only through my meagre wages. Without any electrical equipment like air conditioning, the scorching summers are too harsh. So my children and I spend as much time as we can under the bridge, avoiding the strong sunlight. On the other hand, we suffer from cough and flu as a result of the freezing winters. Moreover, during the rainy reason, water leaks into our hut. I never imagined my life would be as terrible as it is now

I frequently travelled long distances in order to receive support and donation from humanitarian support organizations, but JEN was the only one that visited our house and registered us with the livelihood recovery project. JEN gave me beetle goats as a means to increase my income. From now on, I will take care of the goats with all my effort to recover my livelihood and do my best to raise our living conditions.