News : Emergencies

Pakistani flood-hit children get medical aid

Pakistani flood-hit children get medical aid – 3 Sep 2010

Children in one of the poorest areas affected by the Pakistan floods are to receive free health services from a Tearfund partner.

Disruption to clean water supplies and sanitation has led to widespread outbreaks of illness, notably diarrhoea, gastroenteritis and skin conditions. To combat this, transition centres are to be set up in six villages in Punjab by staff from the Adult Basic Education Society (ABES).

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Helping the most vulnerable

These communities are based in the district of Mianwali which has high levels of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy. The Indus river also flows through the area and the floods have caused considerable damage to homes, livelihoods, roads and bridges. The new transition centres will offer free check-ups, medicines, nutritional supplements, psycho-social support and ways of purifying water. Partner staff will work with district health officials on this project, identifying the worst cases of need. Where severely ill people are found, patients will be referred to the district hospital.

Health education will be another key part of ABES’ intervention, particularly teaching children who’ve seen their schools destroyed about cleanliness and hygiene. The disaster has left a traumatic imprint on the emotional health of youngsters and so ABES will be using play and learning activities to restore a sense of normality.

Support for mums

ABES staff are also looking to create Mother Support Groups which will help women as they restore their family life and livelihoods.

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Up to 20 million people have been affected by the floods, which started at the end of July and have swept from the north to south of the Pakistan, caused by exceptional monsoon rains. With generous support for our floods appeal, fellow Tearfund partner SSEWA-Pak has been providing food and other essential items to thousands of survivors in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa provinces. A team from SSEWA-Pak are working with Unicef to address the needs of children affected by the floods.

Click here to Donate now

  • €107 could pay for a food package for four families for 30 days
  • €53 could pay for a health & hygiene kit to protect 10 families from disease
  • €21 could pay for eating utensils for 4 families so they can cook for themselves
Pakistan flood aid gets to families in remote areas

Pakistan flood aid gets to families in remote areas – 27 Aug 2010

This week food, plastic sheets for shelter, hygiene kits and cooking utensils were among the items distributed to another 500 families in the Kashmore district of Sindh.

It’s nearly a month since the monsoon rains brought devastation to Pakistan, affecting around 20 million people and claiming the lives of 1,600 others.

Lost everything

As the flood waters have moved from the north to the south, Sindh province has increasingly been deluged. Ashraf Mall, Tearfund’s Country Representative for Pakistan, said, ‘There’s been no let-up in the flooding situation. More and more areas are being flooded.’

So far Tearfund partner SSEWA-Pak has provided aid to more than 8,000 families in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province and is currently working in Sindh to help people who in many cases have lost everything.

In the village of Saiful-Mirani in upper Sindh, a man called Gulab told how his house was virtually destroyed and his family only just managed to escape injury: ‘I have nothing left at all,’ he said, adding that they had received no outside help.

Solomon Khurrum from SSEWA-Pak, speaking from what looked like a vast lake, said, ‘There used to be a nice village here where people cultivated their lands but now there’s nothing left; no medical help has been provided to the people who are affected and no food either.’

Illness spreading

One elderly villager said, ‘Our crops were destroyed by the floods. We have nothing, we have lost the wheat which we had – what will our children eat now? This is the third day our children are hungry, we don’t have anything to eat or drink.’ Waterborne illnesses are adding to the suffering. Diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, rashes and other skin complaints are increasingly evident as the flooding affects access to clean water and disrupts sanitation. A team from SSEWA-Pak are working with Unicef to address the needs of children affected by the floods.

Click here to Donate now

  • €107 could pay for a food package for four families for 30 days
  • €53 could pay for a health & hygiene kit to protect 10 families from disease
  • €21 could pay for eating utensils for 4 families so they can cook for themselves
Survivors tell of flood’s nightmare

Survivors tell of flood’s nightmare – 12 Aug 2010

Survivors of the Pakistan flooding disaster have been telling Tearfund of their terror as rising waters destroyed their homes and forced them to flee for their lives.

Vast swathes of the country from the north to the south are under water after heavy monsoon rains, which have affected 14 million people and claimed the lives of 1,600 others.

Younas John, 48, was asleep when the deluge struck his village in north west Pakistan. He said, ‘It was midnight and I heard voices outside. I went out and everyone was running to save their lives. I took my family to higher ground.’

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Saved

‘Thank God my family is saved but now we have no shelter or food. The water level rose to ten feet and our homes were completely destroyed. We’ve lost all our belongings, including clothes, utensils, everything.’

Staff from Tearfund partner SSEWA-Pak are assisting Younas’ family, who as well as needing food and other essentials have been left traumatised by the flooding. Our partner has supplied 1,100 families in the north west with food, plastic sheeting for shelter, stoves, plates, cups, pots, soap, towels, tooth paste and antiseptics.

Staff are also responding to similar needs further south in Sindh province which has been affected by the flood waters moving downstream. The water is passing through Sukhar in Sindh and a barrage there is, like many dams, feeling the stain so the area’s canal system has been opened up to reduce pressure on it.

Strain

Ashraf Mall, Tearfund’s Country Representative for Pakistan, said, ‘The whole of the upper Sindh and some parts of the lower Sindh are now under water.’

The country’s army moved some people living near the swollen river Indus to higher ground but the district of Kashmore in Sindh has been inundated after an embankment was breached.

In some parts, water levels rose 12 feet. Umer Hazrat, an agricultural labourer, is among those affected. He lost his home, his fields and his cattle, but with his family managed to save some domestic utensils. ‘My wife hardly had time to save anything because the water level was rising so fast. I’ve lost everything but I am thankful to God that my family is alive,’ he said.

Huge misery

Home, for now, for Umer is on the side of a road, its raised position offering the only dry piece of land in the area. SSEWA-Pak is providing him and his family with emergency aid.

Solomon Khurrum, from SSEWA-Pak, appealed for more help via Tearfund’s Pakistan floods appeal: ‘I urge you (Tearfund supporters) to come forward and contribute to the aid effort and to help people who are suffering such huge misery,’ he said.

Please give what you can today

But we must act quickly. Tens of thousands of people are injured and homeless. And floods are an ideal breeding ground for water-borne diseases such as cholera. Donate now

  • €107 could pay for a food package for four families for 30 days
  • €53 could pay for a health & hygiene kit to protect 10 families from disease
  • €21 could pay for eating utensils for 4 families so they can cook for themselves

Download a powerpoint prayer presentation here to share with others and to help pray effectively.

Enormous floods devastates Pakistan – Tearfund responds

Enormous floods devastates Pakistan – Tearfund responds – 4 Aug 2010

Tearfund’s local partner organisations in Pakistan were in a position to immediately assist those affected by monsoon flooding. Heavy rains in northern Pakistan have caused floods which have killed at least 1,600 people and affected 12 million people, leaving hundreds of thousands injured and homeless. Tearfund’s partner SSEWA-PAK have started to distribute food and essential non-food items to families most urgently affected by the floods.

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A state of emergency has been declared by the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (KPK) after days of rain caused widespread devastation, in some places sweeping entire villages away. The flood is now passing through Punjab and moving towards the Sind region, where people have already been asked to evacuate.

Roads, bridges, crops and livestock have been destroyed as rivers have burst their banks and inundated vast areas, with Balochistan in the south west and Punjab also affected.

Ashraf Mall, Tearfund’s Country Representative for Pakistan, said:
‘It’s one of the biggest floods in the history of Pakistan. People need food immediately as they have lost their homes and possessions.

‘But it is not proving easy to respond to this emergency. Bridges and roads have been destroyed and the disruption of transport and communication links is making assessments difficult, with many survivors effectively cut off from outside help.’

Tearfund have released emergency funds to support local partners to support people affected by the flooding, and particularly to minimise the impact of floods on the areas of southern Punjab and Sind when the water reaches there. Donate now to support those in need in Pakistan. Download
a powerpoint prayer presentation here to share with others and to help pray effectively.

All photos: Ashraf Mall/Tearfund

Sahel Food Crisis

Sahel Food Crisis – 9 Jun 2010

In West Africa, millions are desperate for food.

(Picture – Previously malnourished girl receiving nutritional supplement from Tearfund partner CREDO in Burkino Faso)

Bad harvests over a number of years mean staple foods like grain have shot up in price by as much as 43 per cent. At the same time, the value of cattle has plummeted. Families would normally trade their cattle for food – but now they’re not worth enough. This means they have no money, and many people are eating just one meal a day.

In Niger alone, a massive seven million people – half the country’s population – need urgent help.

In Chad, a further two million people need immediate assistance.

“The Sahel is one of the most destitute regions in the world and the spectre of hunger is pushing increasing numbers of people from the countryside and into cities where they are searching for food to feed their families,” says Thomas Yanga, World Food Programme’s regional director for West Africa. “People have lost crops, livestock, and the ability to cope on their own, and the levels of malnutrition among women and children have already risen to very high levels,” he added.

Millions more across Burkina Faso and Mali, as well as Niger and Chad, are at risk, and will fall into crisis if we don’t act now.

Our partners have been working in this region for 20 years. But, to respond to this growing crisis and save lives, they need more resources. We have therefore launched an appeal.

You can help support our continuing relief efforts by giving to our Emergency Fund

Cash for work: kick starting Haiti’s economy

Cash for work: kick starting Haiti’s economy – 8 Apr 2010

Extract from Tearfund aid workers blog:

I moved quickly out of the way as the young man swung a wheelbarrow of rocks around me, making his way from a pile of rubble to the workmen behind me.

Tearfund is paying for a road to be constructed, linking two remote villages in the hills behind Leogane, west of Port-au-Prince. The rocks pack down on top of a clay road, making it considerably more durable during the wet season ahead. Donkeys walk along the road, carrying local produce in one direction to the rural market, and consumer goods in the other back to a remote village.

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To be precise, Tearfund is not so much paying for a road as injecting cash into a starved local economy where markets fractured and collapsed along with people’s houses and assets after the earthquake. Each adult worker receives a wage in exchange for a week’s work; the fact that a road is built means everyone benefits. Another benefit is that creating roads from rubble is a great way to clear rubble from sites where new buildings need to go up, not to mention the benefits of bringing people together on a constructive project after such a tragedy.

People who have experienced injuries and are physically unable to work have a wage set aside for them so they are not excluded.

These highland communities were poor before the earthquake. Now, their houses, schools and churches lie in ruins and they are paying more for their basic goods after prices shot up on January 12th – the day of the earthquake.

Many agencies use ‘cash for work’ schemes, like Tearfund’s road building project, to kick-start the economy and create jobs where employment has collapsed.
Rather than make assumptions about what people need, this type of project enables families to make their own choices about how aid money is spent. Studies show that people typically spend the money wisely, for example on housing repairs, education fees or replacing household equipment and essential farm tools. There’s no way that Tearfund could have known the individual needs of each family, or provided for them in the short time since the earthquake, so working like this means each family can make sure their urgent needs are met.

It helps people help themselves.

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