Passing the Mehran Air Base - the showplace of a bold attack only a month ago - on the way to the city leaves no doubt as to how far and how close to the city the militants have come by now.
We visit a village where two Swiss private companies are donating several very simple houses and running drinking water supply to families, who survived last summer's heavy flooding with nothing more than their bare lives. The keys and properties are handed over to the women and mothers, after having made the experience, that men had sold their properties and the families had lost their home again. Women apparently hold on to their houses better.
In Pakistan 28% of all pregnancies are unwanted and 900 000 abortions are registered every year - contraceptives are not forbidden by the Koran but by many husbands and in-laws. There is incredible poverty and sadness, no sight of a school, medical care and hardly any food. Surviving is the only purpose of life at the time.
A miracle, that there are still children with a smile on their faces.
Koohi Goth Hospital - my next visit offers more hope for improvement! Our "Wild Gang" had organized a "High Tea" at the British High Commissioner's residence in early spring and with the help of generous donors we were able to support the surgeries done at the Hospital for Fistula repair by providing medications and bandages. The surgeries are being done for free and a team of doctors performs them on Sundays.
What a joy to see some of these women, whose life and dignity has been given back to them! Proudly they are sitting in their tribal costumes or shalwar kameezes on their Hospital beds. The doctors speak of incredible strength and resilience they encounter in most of these women. Going back home and to their hard work immediately after the operations is all they want. The patients come from all provinces of Pakistan, speaking many different languages and dialects, some of them unknown to the doctors and nurses. Such a richness of culture, wherever I arrive in this country!
The biggest achievement of Dr. Shersha Syeed and his team is the school for midwives at the hospital, even going on to teach midwives to become teachers back home in their villages - starting at the root of the problem and trying to avoid fistulas altogether.
The Swiss Consul General set up a competition among local schools in Karachi to create a poster for the 720th anniversary of Switzerland, which will be commemorated on the 1st of August this year. Surprising results from students of a country so different and distant to ours!
One with the Swiss flag - a big white cross on red ground with the words written "order = power" on it - would probably not win the first price in Switzerland, but it does say a lot about daily life in this country.
Another student quotes from the late Swiss Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross - also on the Swiss flag:
"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from."
At the old British "Sindh Club" (male members only!) we eat an incredibly delicious Pakistani dinner - fruity and hot spices and... the mango season starts in Karachi!
