"We have no clothes, no food, no shoes and no home. My brother is small, he can't fight the looters who snatch all the food from the aid trucks," she says.

Abandoned by her father after her mother died, the teenage refugee will spend Saturday's Eid holiday with her grandmother and 10-year-old brother in a makeshift camp 450 kilometres (280 miles) south of her hometown of Garhi Khero.

While most of the Muslim world celebrated Eid on Friday, the festival falls on Saturday in Pakistan.

Bringing an end to the fasting month of Ramadan, it should be an occasion for family celebration and gift-giving, but for Pakistan's poor and hungry flood survivors, this year's holiday offers more rain and little joy.

In southern Hyderabad, a city now teeming with more than one million people displaced by the floodwaters, Rukhsana mills gloomily around a camp lined with donated tarpaulin tents filling the grounds of a vegetable market.

"When we were at home, our grandmother would arrange something for us on Eid, but now we don't even have a home," she says woefully.

Eid is a time of lavish celebration in Pakistan for those who can afford it. Women don new dresses and cook special feasts for big family gatherings, while children are given special Eid pocket money "Eidi" to buy sweets and toys.

But in Sindh, the province worst-hit by weeks of catastrophic flooding, weather forecasters predict more rain will come on Saturday, threatening to turn thousands of unhygienic relief camps into muddy bogs.

Already, humid conditions in Pakistan's southern belt have scorched the skin of those ekeing out a living without proper shelter, and without enough food and water to get by.

Flood survivors say this year's festival offers no respite from their grim reality, and recall instead golden memories of Eid celebrations back home.

"We had our own houses, buffalos and crops. We would celebrate at home with joy and enthusiasm," says 45-year-old farmer Haji Hussain, wistfully.

"But now we have no money, no food and no clothes to celebrate and have fun," says the father of eight, who migrated from his home of Ghauspur, 350 kilometres (215 miles) north.

The prize buffalos he brought with the family were stolen, he says.

"Now I am penniless. My children are sad and desperate because I have nothing to buy them -- no toys, clothes or shoes. We can't be happy this Eid," he says.

Mother-of-four Karima Bibi, 30, says she is also powerless to provide her children with a break from the misery of the floods, that have already claimed 1,760 lives and threaten more with outbreaks of water-borne disease.

"Eid is for those who have money and shelter and who have something to give to their children. We have nothing. We don't even have shelter to save our children from the scorching heat," she says.

"This year we will wear the same old clothes and will just give our children any food we are given," she says.

earlier related report
Muted Eid celebrations in Pakistan amid flood fallout
Islamabad (AFP) Sept 11, 2010 - Pakistani Muslims took part in low-key celebrations on Saturday for the Eid al-Fitr festival, as millions still languished without shelter after the nation's worst-ever floods.

Eid is the most important festival in the Islamic calendar -- marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan -- but celebrations were muted as the fallout from devastating floods continued.

The deluges have left 10 million people without shelter nationwide, according to UN figures, with UN spokesman Maurizio Giuliano describing it as "one of the worst humanitarian disasters in UN history."

Some 21 million people have been affected by the floods, which began more than six weeks ago and have dragged on through Ramadan, with more than eight million reliant on aid handouts for survival.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani mentioned the flood victims in their separate Eid messages to nation.

"We cannot celebrate the day with traditional fanfare and festivities when millions of our countrymen have been rendered shelterless as villages, towns and cities have been destroyed by the floods," Zardari said.

He said: "We bow our heads in gratitude to Allah on this day for blessing us with the bounties of the holy month of Ramadan."

"For the Muslims it is a thanksgiving day and I wish to greet all Muslims of the world on this occasion."

In his message, Prime Minister Gilani said: "This year's Eid festival is being celebrated on such a moment of history, when a large part of country is under the devastation caused by pre-Ramadan floods."

"Millions of fellow countrymen are homeless and facing severe difficulties."

He said the nation had pullled together to lessen the hardship faced by the flood victims.

"No doubt, brave nations face the challenges with courage and mettle," he said.

State-run Pakistan Television showed footage of Prime Minister Gilani's visiting flood-affected areas and camps in Sindh and Baluchistan provinces.

Gilani met with people including women and children in the camps and distributed Eid gifts and sweets among them.

Fresh rains have hampered rescue efforts in Sindh as thousands of people trying to leave flood-threatened towns remained stranded, with forecasters saying there will be more rain over the next 24 hours.

Near the flood-hit town of Sujawal, most of the flood victims spent Eid sitting under the open sky still without shelter, food or clothes.

"It looks like a nightmare as I have no shelter...I don't have money or enough food to feed my grandchildren on this day of Eid, which used to bring joys for us in the past," Hakima Malah, a resident of the Sindh town told AFP.

Malah, 60, said the weather was again menacing her family and others camped out without shelter.

"It rained through the night yesterday and we had to stay in open as we do not even have tents."

Thirty-year-old Mithi was also visibly upset at not getting food and new clothes for her family on Eid.

"I have five children and all of them wear old clothes even on the Eid day today", she said, adding that "We are getting meals once a day with no help coming from the government".

The floods inundated vast swathes of Pakistan and killed 1,760 people but disaster officials have said the number of deaths is likely to rise "significantly" when the missing are accounted for.

Global cash pledges have been slow to emerge to bolster rescue and relief efforts and the UN warned it could impede relief operations as Pakistan faces a triple threat to food supplies -- with seeds, crops and incomes hit.

Advancing floodwaters continue to threaten parts of Sindh province, with 19 of its 23 districts deluged and 2.8 million people displaced, according to provincial authorities.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook