Local News

Dreams are shattered

August - 18 - 24, 2010
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Azizur Rahman hails from a small village near Nowshera in the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, badly affected by the floods.

His home has been destroyed and he has carried out a collection amongst his workmates and sent a small sum of money to his village to help.

The 24-year-old arrived in Bahrain three months ago to work for a local construction company as a labourer, leaving behind his 22-year-old wife, Yasmin, daughters Amina, three, and Rabia, 18 months, his father, mother, step-mother and 10 siblings.

He lives in Diraz in a labour camp.

He had dreams of paying off the debt he owes an agent, saving enough money to send his parents for Haj and marrying off his siblings.

He wanted to bring financial stability to his wife and daughters.

"I received a call from a relative one morning informing me that my house had been destroyed but my family had escaped unharmed to a relative's home in nearby Mardan district," Mr Rahman said.

"I started crying and tried to contact them but to no avail. I was distraught and watched a Pakistani news channel after my work shift to make sense of the situation, all the time praying for my family's safety.

"After two days, I finally got in touch with them and all that my younger brother and sisters could do was cry on the phone. They told me that our home was completely destroyed and they could not save any belongings.

"After a couple of days they visited the place where our house stood and all they could see was mud everywhere.

"I earn a salary of BD55 monthly and don't have the means to save much. We made a collection in the camp and I have sent BD70 to my family.

"I wish I could have sent more but my fellow labourers contributed what they could to help.

"I want to send enough money so that my family can rebuild the house and I'm trying to spend the bare minimum on my daily meals. I can't even return home soon as I am debt-ridden. This is a great hardship on us."







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