Give to Disaster Relief--Pakistan
Your faithful giving to the people of Pakistan is deeply appreciated.
Situation Report – Pakistan Floods
February 2011
Although the floodwaters have largely receded, five million Pakistanis remain homeless as a result of the massive monsoon rains that submerged 20 percent of Pakistan and killed 2,000 people beginning last July. The worst floods to hit Pakistan in 80 years left Pakistanis needing years of support to recover infrastructure, jobs, housing and farmland.
Many of the 20 million people affected have resumed their lives. However, the presence of silt, standing water and saturated soil make rebuilding homes and restoring farmland difficult or impossible in some areas. Although PDA — working in partnership with other humanitarian organizations such as Church World Service (CWS) and ACT Alliance — quickly jumped in to help families affected by the flooding, millions of people, particularly women and children, remain vulnerable.
Shelter is one of the priorities in the Pakistan response, as winter finds millions still homeless. Photo by Saskia Bolt, ACT/ICCO
With Pakistanis now in the grip of winter, the priorities are to help provide shelter, health services (particularly treatment of respiratory illnesses), food, clean water and the restoration of livelihoods.
“All of this needs to be done quickly, regardless of people’s beliefs, race or where they live,” says Marvin Parvez, CWS Asia/Pacific Regional Coordinator. “If this is not attended to by the international community, the consequences for survivors are going to be far-reaching.”
Since the flooding began in the summer of 2010, your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing and designated giving have enabled PDA to provide more than $705,000 towards the response efforts. Your gifts have helped distribute 24,200 100-lb. family food packages, benefitting 137,400 people, as well as 2,010 tents and 1,000 plastic sheets, benefitting 88,000 people. Your gifts are also helping to provide health centers and 10 mobile health units, through which physicians have conducted more than 100,000 consultations.
Information for this update was provided by Church World Service (CWS) and ACT Alliance.