'Stay warm' – blankets and duvets for the Pakistan earthquake victims

‘Stay warm’ – blankets and duvets
for the Pakistan earthquake victims
The effects of the earthquake in
Pakistan last year were truly
devastating.At DCU an effort to
help the people in the Neelam
Valley, one of the worst affected
areas, was spearheaded by
Rosemary Graham. Berna Cox
reports on the incredibly
generous response of DCU staff.
Rosemary Graham
Somewhere in the Neelam Valley in
Pakistan, an earthquake survivor is
fending off the sub-zero winter
chill by wrapping up warm in a
sleeping bag. Or snuggling up in a
high-tog duvet. Or wrapping their
baby in a warm, woollen blanket.
Or they may even be sporting a
fleecy jacket or a mink stole in order
to stay warm and alive. Whether it’s
the fleece or the mink, it most
likely means little to them. They’re
just glad to have something to keep
them warm. Since the earthquake,
they have nothing. Except, that is,
the kindness of strangers the world
over and none kinder than the staff
at DCU.
On 8 October last year, an
earthquake measuring 7.6 on the
Richter scale devastated the
Pakistani province of Kashmir.
Early news reports conveyed the
magnitude of the disaster as they
mentioned an estimated death toll
Photo: Tim Peek, Concern
in the tens of thousands with
hundreds of thousands left injured
and homeless. As the days wore on,
those appalling figures climbed
even higher. By December, the
reported figures stood at 86,000
dead and 3.5 million homeless, sick,
hungry and cold. As the winter
weather worsened, the biggest
needs of the survivors were the
most basic – shelter and warmth. It
was feared that the cold would
claim yet more lives.
In early January 2006,
Rosemary Graham, a teaching
fellow in SALIS, went to the cinema
with her good friend Marie Cahill.
Marie, a teacher in Portmarnock
Community School, had been
involved through her school with
various appeals over the years and
knew that the plight of the
earthquake survivors would touch
her students. On their way home
she casually mentioned to
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Rosemary that she was going to get
involved with a relief project for
Pakistan. Her sister-in-law, she said,
was putting her in touch with Dr
Farrukh Seyar Butt, a Pakistani
consultant plastic surgeon in Cork,
who was co-ordinating the efforts
to ship containers of blankets and
duvets to the Neelam Valley, one of
the areas most severely affected by
the quake.
Rosemary, says Marie, jumped
in immediately and offered to help.
She would ask her husband to put
out the word in his office and she
would ask the staff in DCU to
donate a few blankets and duvets
as well.
A few blankets and duvets
indeed. Rosemary’s first email to the
DCU staff list in early January was
a simple request for just those
items. Briefly, she explained the goal
in the email and asked that donated
items be in reasonable condition.
She expected that some items
would trickle in to help the
cause. She didn’t expect the
subsequent flood.
“It just snowballed,” she says.
“I’ve never seen anything like the
generosity of spirit.”
By the weekend after she’d sent
the first email, a hundred or so
items had been gathered mostly
from DCU staff. The email had
specified sleeping bags, blankets
and duvets, but warm winter clothes
started to arrive as well.
“We just couldn’t refuse them,”
says Rosemary. “Jackets, fleeces and
baby clothes came in with the
sleeping bags, duvets and blankets,
and the SALIS office started to
resemble a depot.”
Another email went out
thanking those for their
contributions and giving revised
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information about collection
points, etc. By then, staff members
were only getting into their stride!
And some had started to contribute
to the effort in other ways. Ray
Wheatley in the Buildings Office
volunteered to transport the
ever-growing mountain out to
Rosemary’s house; Rodney Lafferty
and Shelley Barron in the SALIS
office became volunteer receivers
and stackers; Dr Angela Leahy in
SALIS and the girls in the Finance
Office made duvet-gathering their
mission; and Therese Godfrey of
the Accommodation Service
donated a large number of duvets
to boost the appeal. Donations of
money also came in to a special
bank account to help with the
shipping costs.
Altogether, says Rosemary, it
was an incredible response.
“People actually took the
duvets off their beds,” she adds.
And every time she came back to
the office, the pile had grown.
“People dropped stuff in and
wouldn’t even leave their name,”
she says. “One staff member
struggled in with two big sacks
stuffed full of duvets. He
apologised for being a bit late – he
was delayed picking them up at the
dry cleaners.”
Photo :Tim Peek, Concern
Such care and generosity, says
Rosemary, was totally unexpected
but completely indicative of the
overall response. Some people went
out and bought new duvets and
sleeping bags to donate. Others
made superhuman efforts to
transport their donations – one
staff member cycled in on two
consecutive days with a large duvet
rolled up under her arm. Another
arrived in with a mink stole and a
fur coat. Would they keep someone
warm? Yes. They were packed and
shipped along with everything else.
The appeal, says Rosemary, really
brought out the best in people.
“I don’t mean to sound
sentimental, but I got such pleasure
out of meeting such lovely people,”
she comments.
Modestly, Rosemary underplays
her own role in the undertaking. All
the donations were sorted and
stored in her own home. Her entire
family and their friends were
galvanised into action. Her son, a
member of the Reserve Defence
Forces (RDF), brought a bit of
military expertise to the
operation. His experiences of
camping with the RDF taught him
to roll and pack bedding in the most
space-efficient way. A little platoon
of helpers rolled and packed and
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inventoried the donations and, from the command
centre of her kitchen, operations officer Rosemary
knew at any given time exactly how many double
duvets, single duvets, etc. they had and which room
they were in.
In a gesture of pure kindness and humanity,
Rosemary took time to put little notes in the pockets of
the jackets to tell the recipient that the donation was
made by a member of staff at Dublin City University.
She signed off the notes with the simple but heartfelt
wish: “Stay warm.”
When it came time to load and transport the cargo,
a colleague of her son’s in the RDF borrowed his
father’s truck and donated his services.
“The donations never touched the ground,” says
Rosemary. “They were loaded from my home to the
truck and from the truck directly onto the shipping
container. It was military precision.”
On 30 January, a mere three weeks after the first
email, the 40 ft container was packed to the brim and
ready for shipping. Rosemary mailed the DCU staff list
with the final tally. Included in the figures are
donations from her husband’s work colleagues and
some from immediate neighbours. The bulk, though,
came from DCU staff.
There were 155 single duvets; 89 double/king size
duvets; 34 sleeping bags; 65 baby blankets; 165 woollen
blankets; and 46 warm jackets (including a brand new
The Art of Nursing
In April the School of Nursing
DCU hosted the third annual
exhibition of visual art, poetry and
music produced by Nursing
Humanities students. The
exhibition conveyed images and
themes relating to experiences of
illness and the art of nursing.
In recent times using the arts
has been a way to understand illness
and transform approaches to care.
Art, literature and music can all help
us reflect more deeply on the
complexity of the human
experiences of health, sickness,
disability and death and the finding
of meaning, beauty and hope.
Two complementary activities
are ongoing in Nursing Humanities.
First, group discussion and interpretation
of art/literature help to
focus on human experiences and
themes of interest to nursing.
sheepskin coat). There were also duvet
covers, pillows, pillow covers, etc.
“I was so delighted to be involved,” says Rosemary.
“It was hectic but exhilarating.” She pays enormous
tribute to her friend Marie who, she says, was the
absolute driving force behind the project. “I just
tagged along and helped out a bit,” she says with her
trademark modesty.
Through the co-ordinator, Dr Butt, and the
assurances of the Pakistani Embassy, both Rosemary
and Marie are completely assured that the container of
donations will reach those whose need is greatest. The
Pakistani Army is distributing the aid and Major Khalid
Nawaz, a personal contact of Dr Butt’s, is ensuring that
the Irish donations are distributed in the devastated
Neelam Valley. The money collected during the appeal
exceeded the shipping costs and the surplus is being
used to buy galvanised sheeting to build shelters for the
survivors. Dr Butt continues to co-ordinate the relief
effort. The Irish are, he says, ‘fantastic people’. As a
Pakistani native, it is an emotional time for him. A close
friend of his in Kashmir lost 21 family members in the
quake.
In her penultimate email to the DCU staff list,
Rosemary thanked everyone for the donations that just
kept coming in. She ended that email by suggesting that
DCU staff should take a bow. Go on, then. You were
wonderful.
Second, creative workshops use the
media of art, writing and music to
develop personal creativity,
self-expression and imagination.
Furthermore, empathy is enhanced
and more considered, ‘artful’
approaches to patient care
are fostered.
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