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As contaminated floodwater gushed into their home in Buner, north-western Pakistan, Khalid (name changed) and his wife helped their three children up to higher ground. Amid the chaos, the couple had one more crucial thing to rescue: their life-saving HIV drugs.
They trudged through neck-deep water inside their home to save their antiretroviral treatment pills from being swept away, ignoring all other valuables.
“The waist-deep mud left behind by floodwaters had cut off our village for more than eight days,” Khalid recalls. “Thankfully, my wife and I still had our HIV medication with us,” says the daily wager, who contracted the virus while working abroad five years prior.
This happened last monsoon, in August 2025, when the skies opened on Pakistan, causing widespread flooding. Devastating riverine floods affected places like Buner, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Punjab province.
