Embodiment of Hope

The Dawn, Pakistan

The Review
January 29th, 2006

By Shamim-ur-Rahman

For almost two days, without food and water, a brave young man trekked through the treacherous and unsettled mountains, fighting against time to save his sister’s life

In the make-shift field hospital set up by an NGO called Al-Khidmat in Bagh, near the LoC in Azad Kashmir after the October 8 earthquake, I was struck by the condition of a young girl whose right arm had been amputated and had plaster around her waist and right leg. She was about seven years old. On a bed besides her was a young, fair looking boy in his teens, trying to console her and calling her beti.

“As long as I am alive you don’t have to worry beti. Perhaps this is Allah’s will. Our parents have died but everyone has to depart one day. Don’t worry. If you are in pain tell me. The doctors are here. They will take care of you,” the boy was telling his sister who was visibly in agony but was fighting it out, listening to her caring brother, now head of the family.

More: http://www.dawn.com/weekly/review/review6.htm