When do neighbours become good friends?

If you saw two children arguing – yelling, calling names, sulking – you’d want to intervene. An adult can pull two children apart and talk sense into them. But when two nuclear-armed countries are behaving that way, nobody can really do anything about it. That’s the situation neighbours India and Pakistan are in today.

We’ve all heard about the devastating floods that have ravaged Pakistan this month. You may not have heard that many parts of northern India have been stricken by floods too, with hundreds killed (including 18 young children who were killed when their school collapsed under heavy rains yesterday in Dehradun).

3.5 million children are estimated to be at risk of contracting water-borne diseases in Pakistan because of the floods. Their parents have lost their livelihoods; their homes have been washed away; and their friends or family members may have been killed. India has offered $5 million (about £3.2 million) in aid money to Pakistan, but because of longstanding political and military clashes and a deep mistrust of its giant neighbour, the government of Pakistan has not yet accepted and is still considering the offer.

Some have complained that India’s offer of aid was shamefully delayed (just last Friday), and that the amount is somewhat paltry given the scale of the damage. Although perhaps given the climate of mistrust and ongoing conflict, as well as India’s own natural disasters, the timing and size of India’s offer isn’t really surprising.

So the question is this - does a government, whose employees and ministers are largely safe in flood-free zones, have the right to pick and choose what aid it will receive when millions of children’s lives are at stake? Now I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t know all the intricacies of government relations. But I do know that we need to pray that Pakistan will accept the aid and put it to good use right away. Some countries will just never get along. But it would be terrible if that led to a missed opportunity to bring desperately needed aid to children at huge physical risk. As is so often the case, disagreements between governments are resulting in a direct impact on vulnerable children.

The conflict between India and Pakistan goes back to 1947 when the Indian subcontinent endured the trauma of being partitioned into two states: one mainly Hindu, and one a homeland for Indian Muslims. In the rush to move from India to Pakistan (or the other way) 12 million people were forcibly uprooted, many of them killed. Since then the two countries have fought three major wars, and officials on both sides continue to treat one another with suspicion.

Please pray for the softening of the hearts of both India and Pakistan’s governing officials. This could be a chance for India and Pakistan to start rebuilding their relationship. In fact, it has many parallels to aid given between Turkey and Greece – two countries that traditionally aren’t friends – when earthquakes struck both countries in the summer of 1999. Both governments generously extended aid to the citizens of the other, and both countries were humble enough to accept it.

Viva has six thriving networks across India that help thousands of the country’s most vulnerable children. With the help of local churches and the cooperation of Indian authorities, we’ve been able to start challenging Indian culture to be more mindful of children’s rights and to place higher value on girls in particular. We have also been working to further develop our network of Christian projects and churches in Pakistan to respond to the ongoing needs of children. In the aftermath of the flooding, these agencies will be able to provide the care, physical and emotional support, and medical attention many of the young victims will need.

Providing that ongoing care, long after media attention and flood waters subside, will require real partnership, real relationship. So let’s pray that these two governments can put aside their historical differences and become more than just neighbours. Let’s pray that they will actually work together to change the situations of the vulnerable children within their countries.


For more information on what we are doing across Asia see http://www.viva.org/asia.aspx