Visit to Kashmir

Story: Julia Armstrong

A delegation from Sheffield, including Lord Mayor Jackie Drayton, travelled to Bagh in Azad Kashmir in April 2007 to look at the work being done to help survivors by the Kashmir Earthquake Relief Fund, part of the Sheffield-based Kashmir Educational Trust.

We have been raising money to rebuild a girls’ college in Bagh and the main reason for our trip was so that Jackie, who has supported our appeal during her year in office, could lay the foundation stone for the college.

We also visited five sewing workshops that the Asian Women’s Group leader Kubra Assim set up last summer in hill villages around the area, to help give young women who have lost family a skill and a chance to earn some money.

Heeley Development Trust worker Maxine Bowler, the Kashmir Earthquake Relief Fund treasurer, was also part of the delegation and she and Kubra have been putting in a lot of effort to raise the money to keep the sewing workshops running. The Asian Women’s Group have also been working hard and sponsor one workshop themselves. Maxine made a tough decision to leave behind her Respect election campaign in Burngreave and we were all so proud of the way our work has been giving people real help and hope.

We just had no idea how much our projects meant to people – when we visited the sewing workshops, we were greeted by the whole village, piled high with garlands and showered with rose petals! People were especially thrilled to meet the Lord Mayor of Sheffield and Jackie certainly enjoyed her trip. We are pleased she has agreed to continue her involvement.

Kubra said the change in the women at the sewing workshops was remarkable – from being too shy to speak to her or have their photographs taken, they were learning a new confidence and some women were making speeches in front of large audiences.

We were in tears several times, either at the welcome we got or hearing the stories people told us. One young woman explained to Maxine that the workshops gave the women something to work at and focus on, rather than thinking of the trauma and loss of their families and homes.

Everywhere we went, we got a fantastic reception and people wanted to meet us and host events in our honour.

The girls’ college, which will be renamed Sheffield Girls’ College, is the key project we are working on and we had to make a decision to accept a piece of land above the city of Bagh to replace the original college site, which is not geologically sound enough to build on.

A lot of the city of Bagh will have to be re-sited off the fault line and we felt that we would lose too much momentum by waiting until the city masterplan is finally redrawn. Instead, we accepted the regional government’s offer of other land. They will also build us an access road and provide water and electricity. We had been worried that all the money we are raising might have disappeared in just providing these facilities otherwise.

We were able to announce our good news at a massive event held in our honour by politician Qamar Ul-Zaman, PPP (Pakistani People’s Party) leader of the opposition in the Kashmiri Assembly. He set up special marquees and invited 2,000 people and fed them all. He said that if he had not been busy, he would have invited 10,000 people!

A former education minister, he has been a great friend to our project and helped our delegation leader Abdul Assim, who is secretary of Kashmir Educational Trust and Kubra’s husband, make the visit such a success.

Sheffield College lecturer Assim has worked tirelessly to move our project forward and is passionate about working for his homeland.

For those of us with no connections to Kashmir, we feel that the college is a way of reaching out to people in an area of the world that has been affected by many tragedies, including the violent dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. We also feel strongly that we must do something to oppose the negative images of Muslims so prevalent in our media – in Azad Kashmir, we were met with nothing but warmth and friendship and generosity.

• Julia has also written about the trip in the Sheffield Star and is making a documentary about the delegation’s visit.

• To donate to the college appeal, send cheques made payable to Kashmir Earthquake Relief Fund to Kashmir Earthquake Relief Fund, c/o Kashmir Educational Trust, Abbeyfield Park House, Abbeyfield Park Road, Sheffield S4 7AT. We are thrilled at any amount donated but if you are able to sponsor a room at a cost of £1,590, you can name it after the person or organisation of your choice.

• To sponsor a sewing workshop costs £70 a month and £35 buys a sewing machine. Or make a smaller donation, same details as above but please specify in a letter that the money is for the sewing workshops.

• Look out for us at Heeley Festival, where we will be doing some fundraising!