Case Study 9: Disaster Preparedness Saves Lives

Man sitting by his home, now just a pile of rubble. CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan

Masoom Khan used to work in the Government High School, Peshora. He recalls that it was truly a disastrous situation for them when the destructive earthquake of October 8, 2005, struck their village. He remembers that he was in his house and it was terrible; he could feel the whole house shaking.

Masoom says that it was an overwhelming situation and everyone panicked. He is thankful to Church World Service-Pakistan/Afghanistan for the training which they had conducted to deal with such disaster situations. Recalling his learning during the training, he immediately told his children and wife to get out of the house and instantly ran to save his elderly mother.

He and his family are thankful to CWS for providing excellent training through which they were not only able to escape, but also helped many other people.

Masoom voluntarily worked in his village and saved the lives of many. He even tried to communicate with government officials and other resourceful people to help them, but he says that CWS has so far been the only one that has helped them in particular in the current disastrous situation.

He and his family are grateful to CWS and saying God bless the organization for their work and efforts that they are carrying out for the affected people.

Church World Service has trained almost 2,000 teachers in northern Pakistan in disaster preparedness.

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