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Emergency Update: Southern Asia Earthquake
Man receiving CWS blankets
Photo: CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan
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SITUATION:
The death toll from the October 8 earthquake (7.6 on the Richter scale) that devastated parts of Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan, has now exceeded 80,000 in Pakistan, and 1,300 in India, and numbers continue to rise. As many as 1.5 million people are homeless and require continued emergency relief assistance, including food, water, shelter, and medical attention.
The isolation of many communities and the mountainous terrain, combined with lack of infrastructure, bad weather, and landslide-causing aftershocks (more than 1,000), compounded already hazardous conditions, impairing the critical and massive rescue and relief operations. Dozens of villages have still not been accessed.
Outbreaks of acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, dysentery, and tetanus are a growing concern. Winter weather and lack of food, shelter, and clean drinking water will continue to compromise health of thousands of survivors in the coming weeks and months.
CWS RESPONSE:
PAKISTAN
Church World Service, with ongoing relief and development programs in Pakistan for more than 50 years, began distributing relief assistance almost immediately in the wake of the earthquake. To date, CWS has distributed 6,580 shelter kits and 3,884 food kits to individuals in the areas of Battagram, Shangla, and Balakot.
With ongoing recovery initiatives planned in five program areas through July 2006, CWS-Pakistan is providing assistance, including food, temporary shelter, permanent housing, and psychosocial assistance, targeting 20,000 of the most vulnerable affected families (approx. 140,000 people). Healthcare programs will serve an estimated 50,000 people.
Food and Shelter:
Food packages include wheat flour, rice, pulses (like lentils), cooking oil, sugar, tealeaves, salt, and matchboxes to meet a family's needs for one month. Non-food items include shelter kits and housing reconstruction kits.
Health:
In addition to the distribution of recovery kits, CWS has set up two field clinics, and will be administering care to an estimated 50,000 persons -- half in Azad Kashmir and half in the North West Frontier Province. Basic health care will also be provided through the CWS clinic in Mansehra, which has assisted Afghan refugees for more than ten years.
Psychosocial Care:
Of the 20,000 beneficiary families receiving food, shelter kits, and housing reconstruction kits, CWS is targeting 700 families for psychosocial care. Activities encompass outreach and focus on women, children, and households who lost loved ones in the earthquake. The program will organize support groups and social activities, including sewing, sports, and other recreation, providing therapeutic outlets for trauma. As a part of outreach, CWS P/A will broadcast radio messages and other media geared to women and youth, to educate, comfort, and reassure, while providing helpful information to prevent abuse and exploitation.
Water and Sanitation:
CWS Pakistan, in partnership with Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), will construct a new pipeline system providing clean water to 5,000 families, as well as repairing damaged systems for approximately 15,000 additional families. Construction and repair of latrines, water treatment systems, and storage tanks is also planned.
INDIA
CWS partner Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) is providing assistance to 10,000 earthquake-affected families, distributing heavy wool blankets, clothing, and other non-food items. CASA is distributing 500-plus family-sized tents for temporary housing, and housing reconstruction kits to assist the most vulnerable families.
Contributions to support these efforts may be sent to your denomination or directly to:
Church World Service
Southern Asia Earthquake -- #6979
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515
Contributions may also be made by credit card online, or by calling: (800) 297-1516, ext. 222.
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;
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