Nine months after Pakistani quake, housing remains a problem

Published: 2006-08-08

BARI BANDA, Pakistan (CNS) -- A rock as big as a sport utility vehicle smashed Abdul Qazzum's house last October when a massive earthquake shook the villages that cling to the side of the Sirian Valley as it reaches into the foothills of the Himalayas. The rock remains today where it fell; Qazzum admits it would be impossible to move it. But life goes on for Qazzum and his family, centered on a new home they built alongside the old one. Qazzum's new house, one of 20,000 shelters built by earthquake survivors with assistance from Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency, does not have the time-worn solidity of the old house. The new house was built in a hurry as winter threw a blanket of snow over the valley. Yet Qazzum says it kept his family alive and able to remain for the winter in their home village instead of fleeing to nearby cities like Mansehra, where sprawling tent cities housed hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the disaster. "It's a place for us to start anew," Qazzum told Catholic News Service. "As soon as we can, we're going to add on another room and a kitchen."

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