Personal testimony - Dominic Stephen

Country: PAKISTAN Name: Dominic Stephen Date of birth: 20th Dec 1945 Home address: PO Box 83, Mirpurkhas, Sindh, Pakistan Office: 121-C, Unit 7, Block D, Latifabad, Hyderabad, Sindh E.mail. pvdpthar@yahoo.com; pvdpthar1@hotmail.com I was born of very poor parents in a small town Umerkot (where the great Moghal King Akbar was born) in the Sindh Province of Pakistan. My father converted to Christianity from Hinduism in 1945. We originally come from a Hindu tribal group called 'Parkaris' whose population in Pakistan is about 150,000. Only five percent of this population are Christians, whereas the rest belong to the Hindu religion. The Dutch Missionaries helped me to receive a primary education at St. Joseph's Urdu School, Matli (Sindh, Pakistan) and matriculation from St. Mary's High School, Sukkur (Sindh, Pakistan) in 1966. I married Mariam d/o Daniel in 1966. I started my career in 1966 as a junior office clerk at St. Teresa's Mission Hospital (100 bed) and then worked my way up to become Senior Accountant and Administrator. I went to work for the Aga Khan Maternity Homes as their Administrator in 1981 and worked in this position until the end of 1982. I worked for the Catholic Diocese of Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan as Diocesan Administrator from 1983 to 1988. As I wanted to make my further career in rural development, I went to work for the Tharparkar Rural Development Project (TRDP), established by the Save the Children Fund UK, as Project Manager in 1989. I remained in this job until September 1997. I resigned my job with Save the Children in September 1997 to establish the Participatory Village Development Programme (PVDP) in October 1997. I am presently serving as the first President and Founder member of PVDP. I am a professional development worker, with special interest in rural development of grass-roots communities. I am also working as a freelance development consultant and trainer for local NGOs, CBOs and Donor Organizations. My area of interest is the Arid Lands which are dependent on rainfall for subsistence agriculture and livestock farming. I am working for PVDP in the Thar Arid Zone to improve the natural resources of the communities, which are directly linked to their livelihood. We are working to improve the water, fodder and livestock resources and thus the living standards of the poor and underprivileged communities in this resource poor area of Thar. PVDP also works to improve health conditions particularly of women and children. Update - October 2005 I was in my office in Hyderabad on October 8, 2005, working as usual, when the terrible earthquake shook up Islamabad Capital, N.W.F.P., Muzafarabad in Kashmir and Northern Areas of Pakistan. I was totally unaware of this incidence, when my wife rang me up from our home in Mirpurkhas (about 70 km away from Hyderabad). She asked me if I have watched TV that morning or heard the news to which I said 'no'. My wife was very worried as one of our daughters lives in Lahore with her husband and a two year old daughter. She asked me to call them up and find out if they were safe. I rang up my daughter in Lahore (Punjab) and she told me they were safe, but there were buildings which cracked without human causalities. I quickly ran to the sitting room of our office and powered on our office TV. I was horrified with what I saw. Scores of houses raised to ground, people were crying for help, women were shedding tears over dead bodies of their children, rescue teams were busy removing dead and injured people. There were shocking news of many people under the debris and there were no machinery to break the roofs and walls which had collapsed to remove the dead bodies and injured persons. I was terrified to hear that thousands of school children, who had gone to school that day, were either dead or alive under tons of walls and roofs of their schools. People who were carrying out rescue operations were seen to be helpless as they lacked the equipment to get to these innocent children under the collapsed school buildings. I was in my heart saying "God why it happened today, why could it not happen the day after" the next day being a Sunday and schools remain close, children normally go out to play in the open, many innocent souls could have survived. However, I forgot that "God's ways are not my ways". When the news got to our staff and community people, they started collecting quilts for the earthquake victims. In a week's time they collected about 2000 quilts which were handed over to Church World Service, PVDP's partner in Disaster Response Programme in Pakistan. I feel that Pakistan Government and International organizations must help to rehabilitate the people who have lost almost every thing and are still in shock. The reconstruction work should ensure that future earthquakes if it should occur have less casualities. Lessons should be learned from China and Japan. Dominic Stephen Chairman, Future in Our Hands Pakistan. Note: A branch of Future in Our Hands was established in 2005 - General Manager: Rufin Wilson PersonalData Languages: Urdu, English, Sindhi, Parkari and Punjabi Parents: Father, Sona, Mother Hanu Cecilia Children:Pauline, Alvina, Florence and Lina and Yousaf and Saleem Wife: Miriam Daniel