“No one is listening to us”: Helping those affected by Floods in Pakistan to be heard
When the deluge of monsoon rains first hit Pakistan in mid-June, there was a disturbing feeling that the floods, which have plagued the country over the past two decades, would return. But as unprecedented rainfall showed no signs of slowing, it became clear that this monsoon season would be more devastating and widespread than ever before.
“With one third of the country under water, at least 1,100 people killed, and 6 million more in desperate need of food, water, medical assistance and sanitation, these are the worst floods Pakistan has ever seen.” (DEC)
Homes, schools, and livelihoods were washed away in minutes. The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) through its fifteen member charities have responded quickly, providing life-saving services, and launching a fund raising appeal to enable its charities to get help to those who need it most.
Arete is the expert storytelling agency for NGOs, UN bodies and foundations. We specialise in telling stories that can help make a difference to those most in need. When launching the Pakistan Floods Appeal the DEC contacted Arete for support with collecting high-quality content; providing experienced photojournalists, videographers and writers to gather stories about those most affected by the floods. These first hand accounts have provided valuable content for its multi platform fund raising.
In the video above, gathered by Arete’s team, Manzoor, who used to support his family by farming land near his home, echoes the sense of hopelessness felt by many in Pakistan
“We have no facilities here and now the floods have come. No one is listening to us.”
Isolated, without any connection to the outside world, separated from all he knows by miles of floodwater, Manzoor’s dejection speaks to the heart of Arete’s work. When disaster strikes, telling the stories of those most impacted, ensuring that their stories are heard, and action is taken to help them, is at the essence of our work.
With people’s life’s work washed away in the blink of an eye, and dehydration, starvation, and disease increasing by the day, there is no time to spare in getting those stories out. When NGOs, UN bodies, and foundations launch an appeal like this, they come to Arete to utilise our well-established, far-reaching network of consultants. With talented contacts in countries all over the world, Arete quickly provides a team, usually comprised of local photographers and videographers, experienced in going into the most difficult situations and coming out with high quality content.
The DEC launched their Pakistan Floods Appeal on September 1st, and with the help of content produced by Arete, had raised £15 million by September 4th. Just two weeks into the appeal, the total reached £25 million on September 15th.
Arete Production Manager, Charlotte Johnston and Production Lead, Jacqui Norman-Smith were responsible for the rapid deployment of consultants on the ground:
“We got a call on the Wednesday (31st August) that the team needed to leave that day to drive to an area and start filming and photographing the following day. However, just before the team was about to depart, the DEC realised that aid trucks weren’t able to travel to that region because of the roads — so they weren’t going to get the shots they were looking for. So, plans changed and flights had to be booked for the following day for the team to fly to Karachi.”
Charlotte Johnston
“On an internal level, we had to re-plan the following weeks in terms of Production and Post Production Team time, to ensure DEC was being fully serviced in an emergency capacity… In order to meet the level of demand, we booked in freelance staff to cover the increase in post-production work and to ensure that tight deadlines were being met”.
Jacqui Norman-Smith
But with a developing situation like this, and unforeseen obstacles arising, planning ahead is only one small part of the challenge, and constant flexibility is needed.
“Due to the ever-changing environment, we were finalising briefs with the DEC until the 11th hour for the next day, to accommodate for constant obstacles such as road blocks, travel plans, the safety of our team, and aid activity for us to document… Working in such challenging environments — the floods had affected one third of Pakistan — meant that the safety of our crew was always at risk. The Production Team had to work hard to ensure our crew health was made a priority from the get-go while they were on assignment, checking that they had access to clean water, food, accommodation, transport etc.”
Charlotte Johnston
“Given the fast-moving timeline of disaster zone projects such as this one (plus the difference in time zones), constant and clear communication with our crew, and clients, was vital to us being able to deliver and excel in such challenging circumstances.”
Jacqui Norman-Smith
Akifullah Khan / DEC / Arete
“Our team on the ground struggled with access to electricity, Wi-Fi etc — things that those who aren’t living these experiences might take for granted. This meant that we had to structure our internal teams to fit in with ground staff’s working hours, e.g. 11pm UK time to be able to process the footage being sent to us and deliver it in a speedy manner the next day”
Jacqui Norman-Smith
Videographer Naveed Yousafzai and photojournalist Akifullah Khan were two of Arete’s consultants. Both based in Pakistan’s Peshawar District, they journeyed into Sindh Province that had been particularly badly affected by the floods.
“After reaching Hyderabad, the second-largest city in Sindh Province, we met our driver, Noor Din. Noor Din told stories of the flood, so my heart sank that the doomsday that broke ten years ago had fallen on the poor farmers and labourers again, and this time it had become more intense.”
Naveed Yousafzai
Akifullah Khan / DEC / Arete
“On the way to Khairpur Natanshah, he saw people on the main road who were helpless and waiting for help i.e. drinking water, food, medicine etc.”
Naveed Yousafzai
“We saw people distributing rations, so we also stopped for a while. All the people were crushed on this small truck without even realizing their injuries.”
Naveed Yousafzai
Akifullah Khan / DEC / Arete
“All houses completely destroyed, even food and clean water are not available… your own children, old parents, and siblings are hungry, and you are completely helpless. This was very painful”.
Naveed Yousafzai
Akifullah Khan / DEC / Arete
“To my surprise, when we reached Sindh, the situation was worse than what I expected. The flood had devastated Jamshoro, Dadu Mitiyari and its surroundings. Submerged houses, roads, buildings left people with no choice but to take shelter on higher grounds near to their homes. There were not enough boats to help people. No food, no water, and destroyed houses were the story of everyone.”
Akifullah Khan
“After reaching Khairpur Nathan Shan the road was blocked due to flood. I requested the local boat owner take us to the middle of Khairpur Nathan Shan city, which is completely destroyed, people are still there waiting for help… He did not want to take us because people are drowning there and they may get into the boat and we all will drown.”
Naveed Yousafzai
Akifullah Khan / DEC / Arete
“After begging for half an hour, he agreed to go with us. When we were in the boat, I saw many young men who were swimming in the flood water, they started begging us to take them in the boat. We said we are unable to take them because the boat is small. We promised to inform emergency workers.”
Naveed Yousafzai
“We didn’t know that most of the roads would be under water when we reached the field. In Dadu we hired a local boat and visited different locations. We were worried about ourselves as well as the equipment as there were people wading in water and in some places tried to get into our boat. There was literally no help for them on the ground and I felt guilty when we passed by them. They thought we brought food or water for them, they didn’t know we were only there to capture the situation.”
Akifullah Khan
“The most challenging part was being unable to help people. But I was mentally ready because of my previous experience working with civilian victims, swat operations, and journalistic experience of working in Afghanistan.”
Naveed Yousafzai
“I have worked on many different projects in different situations in the last decade, including a USAID funded project for Civilian Victims Support Program back in 2012–2015, which was focused on stories of victims of terrorism in Pakistan. I have seen horrors of man-made and natural disasters that have made me stronger to fulfill my duties even in hard times. But as a human, it always hurts deep when I see people in pain.”
Akifullah Khan
Akifullah Khan / DEC / Arete
“I was upset when I realized that wherever we went, people expected we were there to help. Then we had to explain that we will bring help and the reasons why we were shooting. Most of them cooperated with us and I was so happy when the help finally arrived on the fourth day in Khairpur.”
Akifullah Khan
“In my field of work, we come across situations where on the spot we cannot help people the way they need it, but I believe when your duty is done the right way it does bear fruits”
Akifullah Khan
While consultants like Naveed and Akifullah can feel powerless, their bravery, resilience and professionalism have helped ensure that millions have been given a lifeline by DEC partner charities funded by the appeal, and that millions more will recover their livelihoods in the long term.
“I am happy that Arete hired me for a task that brought help to the people in need. In the initial days of the shoot, I was a bit skeptical about the possibility of helping those people as they were in desperate need of food and water, yet we tried to them that help will reach them. I was hoping that after seeing our photos and videos someone will reach out to support the flood victims. On the fourth day when I reached the food distribution point in Khairpur, I felt so happy to see the Islamic Relief team and the food items being delivered to the flood victims.”
Akifullah Khan
Akifullah Khan / DEC / Arete
“The resilience of the consultants out in the field has been amazing. Without them, we would not have been able to get the great content that we got. Thank you to the teams for being understanding when plans were changed last minute, when they were unwell but insisted they were fine to go and gather content that day, and for delivering great content daily to us. Our Post Production Team was also great. They were able to follow up if there was any consent/content missing, and they were able to process the footage in a timely manner and write case studies, sometimes with limited information. On an emergency project like this, it is very important to have a team that is able to work under pressure and able to deliver content on time”
Jacqui Norman-Smith
