CRWRC Keeps Focus on Pakistan
The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee continues, along with other faith-based groups, to expand aid efforts to the people of flood-ravaged Pakistan.
On Thursday, it said that it is busy working closely with its partner in Pakistan, the Interfaith League Against Poverty (I-LAP), to provide help to those in need.
CRWRC and I-LAP have been able to help many Pakistan flood survivors so far through the distribution of 8,000 mosquito nets, 1,000 hygiene kits, and numerous tents, with additional materials still being distributed to those, like six year-old Khushnur, who had to leave her home with her family to escape the flooding.
Khushnur cries when she thinks about the floods in her village of Har Bala, Pakistan. Before the flood her family had a prosperous life as farmers, but now they have nothing. Nearly all the homes in Har Bala have been completely destroyed.
Khushnur, her mother, four sisters, and one brother lived out in the open for two weeks with no food, water, or shelter because everything had been washed away. Then I-LAP arrived and was able to move the family into a tent village and provide them with water, food, shelter, and medical treatment.
‘‘The floods have severely affected our lives and no one can pay the costs of losses we have incurred, but I thank and appreciate the efforts of I-LAP and all who helped to establish a tent village for the 250 families,” said Nagras Bibi, Khushnur’s mother. Estimates are that the floods have impacted at least one-fifth of Pakistan.
Timely CRWRC emergency aid was made possible, in part, through previous support of CRWRC’s gift catalog. The catalog provides North Americans with a variety of items that they can donate towards relief efforts in lieu of purchasing a Christmas, birthday, graduation, or anniversary gift for a friend or loved one. Many of these items are later used for CRWRC’s disaster response efforts, allowing CRWRC in instances such as this to respond quickly.
In Pakistan, the gift catalog funding has provided 1,488 hygiene kits, 8,751 mosquito nets, 27 tents, 200 kitchen sets, and access to potable water for 8,000 households for two months. Because CRWRC had these funds on hand, they didn’t have to wait to raise funds before they could respond to the needs
CRWRC, the aid and development agency of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, is also scaling up operations thanks to strong support from individuals across North America and from external organizations, such as Disaster Aid Canada which recently committed $225,000 in aid to CRWRC’s effort.
“We are greatly pleased to accept Disaster Aid’s contribution of 300 survival kits,” said Grace Wiebe, senior project manager for CRWRC. “We deeply appreciate this, and welcome this new partnership.”
Each kit contains a tent, tools, multi-fuel stove, dishes, pots and pans, utensils, waterproof ponchos, mosquito nets, a repair kit, water purification tablets, water containers, blankets, nylon rope, children’s school supplies, and ground covers. The kits will be distributed to flood survivors in the districts of Nowshera and Charsadda in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
CRWRC has also received a commitment for 50,000 Euros from Stichting Red een Kidn (Save a Child Foundation), 100,000 Euros from the relief organization ZOA, and $1.8 million for food purchases which came mostly from the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (and will be matched 4 to 1 by the Canadian International Development Agency).
“While large gifts from external funders are extremely important in making our disaster response work possible, the smaller gifts and regular prayers of individuals are just as important,” said Weibe. “We are extremely grateful for this faithful support that makes up the backbone of our ministry.”
The government of Pakistan estimates that a total of 20 million people have been affected by the deluge, and more than 300,000 houses have been significantly damaged or destroyed to date.
Meanwhile, CRWRC’s response, in Northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, is expanding to meet desperate needs of these displaced families and their hosts with two months of food supplies, and additional shelter tents and hygiene items.
CRWRC is appealing for funding to meet the growing need for emergency survival supplies for 8,000 families in the Nowshera and Charsadda Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. A gift of as little as US $12 can provide a mosquito net and US $30 will supply a hygiene kit for the men, women and children left homeless by this ongoing disaster. CRWRC will also continue to distribute kitchen items and shelter tents in the coming months.
CRWRC has had significant experience in the Northwestern provinces responding to previous disasters in 2005, 2007, and 2009. The agency’s Pakistani partner, ILAP, is based in Islamabad.
In 2009 CRWRC, with ILAP, conducted a relief program to provide emergency food aid to internally displaced families fleeing violence between military forces and insurgents in Malakand, Swat, and then NorthWest Frontier Province. ILAP provided food supplies at that time, along with CRWRC non-food relief items to displaced persons and their host families.
According to the Associated Press, the U.S., Germany and Saudi Arabia have all announced new pledges of aid, while Japan said it would send helicopters to help distribute food, water and medicine. The Asian Development Bank said it would redirect $2 billion of existing and planned loans for reconstruction.
The United States has dispatched 19 army helicopters to hard-hit areas and given other aid worth $90 million, with another $60 million to be formally announced at a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York City on Thursday.
The floods began in the northwest of the country after exceptionally heavy monsoon rains and have since swamped thousands of towns and villages in Punjab and Sindh provinces. While rainfall has lessened, flooding is continuing in parts of Sindh province as water from the north courses down the Indus and other rivers.
CRWRC continues to assess its response to current flooding based on need and available funding.
Checks, marked "Pakistan Flooding 2010" can be sent to:
CRWRC-US
2850 Kalamazoo Ave SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49560
Ph: 1-800-55-CRWRC
CRWRC-Canada
3475 Mainway
P.O. Box 5070 STN LCD 1
Burlington, Ontario, L7R 3Y8
Ph: 1-800-730-3490
To support CRWRC’s response in Pakistan, donate online: US / Canada
