Still reeling from the worst flooding disaster that’s ever hit Pakistan, the country’s women and children are looking to newly erected rehabilitation centers to find some solace, the BBC reports.
When last summer’s intense monsoons submerged a fifth of Pakistan and displaced more than 4 million people, according to PBS, the country’s women and children were also left without a place to convene and address the trauma they had endured. But with the NGOs recent opening of women- and children-only rehabilitation centers, they now have a place to gather socially just as the men do.
“The premises are having quite a positive effect on the women,” Ambreen Fatima, Action Aid official, told the BBC. “Those who come here feel a kind of ownership of the place. Nobody, especially men, can come here. They come here and discuss their issues and problems.”
The centers offer children an academic environment they wouldn’t otherwise have access to and their mothers, an opportunity to heal by sharing how the disaster has affected them.
“Most of the children don’t go to school and waste their time running around,” said Shahana Qasim, a resident of Chah Peerwala village.” “Now, they have a place to go to play and learn new things.”
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