Crossroads aids flood affected families

3 weeks ago the Sirdariya River, which courses its way through South Kazakhstan Province, burst its banks. A combination of unseasonably cold weather, heavy snows, frozen ground and then sudden rains, overwhelmed the waterway.

62 year old ‘Granny’ Hansulu was first alerted to the impending flood by the cries of her neighbour, “Water! Water is coming!” At the time, she was seated at home with her family. It was dusk. Thankfully just enough light remained to enable her and her 12 children to hastily gather what belongings they could carry and flee to higher ground.

The deluge hit an hour or so later, devastating mud brick homes, belongings and remaining livestock. 2,400 homes in the Province were destroyed.

In the town that our team members visited a few weeks after the flood, 87 homes had been razed. 3 weeks on the ground is soaked, with low lying tracts still covered by water. The mud is thick and unstable. Walking is difficult in parts.

‘Granny’ Hansulu spoke quietly about returning home. All that remained of her house was a shattered roof resting on the ground where mud brick walls had stood.

“They want us to move to the city to start over. But we can’t. It’s our land, our home, here. How will we find jobs?  We want to start over. We will but we can’t do it alone."

Our team was there delivering 55 boxes of clothing, crockery and blankets to the affected families. Working together with the Department of Education we will also be delivering stationary and backpacks to the kids in the coming days so they can get to school again.

On returning from the distribution, one of our team reflected, “After seeing all this, perhaps the best word to describe what I saw is dry. I mean dryness in the sense that it seemed as though this flood had gone a long way to taking away the drive and the will of these people… The one oasis in this depressing landscape was the smiles of the children, which seemed to have already returned.”