Back to most recent news releases • Browse archive: 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • Email this story

Emergency Needs Continue in Pakistan Quake Zone

December 5, 2005

Hundreds of thousands of people affected by the earthquake in South Asia--particularly in Pakistan--are still without shelter.

"Of course we're all working night and day to provide as quickly as we can whatever temporary shelter we can get from governments' and aid organizations' contributions," notes Church World Service’s Marvin Parvez.

"The demand for winterized tents [like those provided by CWS earlier in November] is bigger than the supplies available," Parvez says. "For those reasons, CWS also began providing alternative shelter materials early on in the rescue and recovery mission." CWS is providing corrugated tin sheeting to survivors--some of which is being reused from the roofs of mud brick homes that are otherwise rubble following the massive quake. The metal sheeting is fireproof and can withstand strong winds.

"There are no perfect solutions and none seem quick enough or in sufficient quantity to accomplish the unprecedented task at hand," says Parvez, eyeing the descending Himalayan winter.

For children who already have shelter in CWS's tent village in Bisyan, near Balakot, school and recreation is the order of the day. School is a welcome respite as the children write in their new notebooks, play in the world of the alphabet and numbers, and hope for normalcy to return to their lives.

Many of the children in the CWS school--established in collaboration with UNICEF--and other tent schools being set up in Pakistan have not received any formal education prior to this. Coming from remote villages, attending school is a source of interest for them, and helps them overcome the trauma of their loss.

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

Back to most recent news releases • Browse archive: 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • Email this story