Catastrophic floods are wreaking havoc in Pakistan.
This is an unprecedented disaster, with heavy rains
continuing to fall, threatening further devastation.
Tragically, this seems to have fallen off the media radar -
so SchoolAid is challenging Aussie schools to raise $100 each
to make that million dollar aid fund our Founder always dreams
of...
More than 15 million have been affected, many of them
children. Towns and villages have been totally destroyed with
many other parts badly affected by the worst flooding in 80
years. Homes, hospitals and schools have been destroyed,
with threat of disease a great concern.
Children are especially vulnerable in an
emergency such as this, when normal family and community coping
mechanisms are weakened and sometimes completely
removed.
Flood Recovery Project : Promoting School Access in District Lower Dir KPK Pakistan.
9 March 2011
Thank you and CONGRATULATIONS to all the schools across
Australia who contributed towards this Appeal. We wanted to
let you all know how your inspirational activity and fundraising
efforts have made such a difference in the lives to the kids and
school communities affected by this tragic disasater.
KEEP CHECKING BACK! We will be providing you all with
pictures and case studies from schools that have been provided with
these essential school items.
Lower Dir is one of the districts of KPK where major military
operations were carried out against militants in 2008-2009.
As a result significant numbers of people were internally
displaced. The devastating floods of July 2010 compounded
significant hardship felt by the people of KPK with homes, bridges
and schools and other buildings collapsing, and families swept away
by the floods. In KPK, floodwaters are for the most part receding
rapidly or have already done so, allowing people to return to their
places of origin where most will require a significant level of
assistance. Emergency shelter, food, and health and sanitation
assistance all remain a priority for flood-affected populations in
KPK, as well as child protection, education and livelihoods.
Although schools (in Lower Dir) are open and functioning,
enrolment rates are still low. Even prior to the
conflict and the floods, girls' school attendance in much of
Pakistan was low, with only 22 percent of girls, compared with 47
percent of boys, completing primary school. In many areas of
Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw this gender disparity is even more pronounced.
Dropout rates climb further after primary school, with only
30 percent of Pakistan's children receiving secondary education and
only 19 percent attending upper secondary schools. Given this
situation, coupled with the effect of recent conflict and flooding,
areas of KPK require urgent and concerted efforts on the part of
the government and other stakeholders, including NGOs, to work
toward improving children's access to schooling and the quality of
education services.
The proposed Education Project will focus on key areas in need
of immediate attention which will have a sustainable impact by
addressing the issues facing IDP returned children in
flood-affected areas of Swat.
Project Objectives:
Provide essential supplies to enable children to resume their
education
Provide learning materials and furniture to teachers to improve
the quality of learning in flood affected schools
Project Activities will include:
Consultation with children, teachers, and education department
to finalise list of essential items
Procure the essential supplies and provide to respective
schools
Organize handover to schools
Ensure the entry of material on stock register for record
Ensure the community ownership during distribution of essential
supplies
There will be 10 schools targeted by this project to
receive essential school items such as:
School room furnishings; teacher tables, chairs, plastic mats
for students
Other items such pedestal fans, water cooler, cupboard and
dustbin, drinking utensils
(Courtesy of Save The Children)
Life After the Floods
19 November 2010
written by Mary Matheson from Muzaffargarh,
Pakistan.
Shona and I are sitting on
top of a tractor, lurching from side to side as it slowly crawls
through the uneven fields. Our camera equipment is precariously
balanced on the back, and dust blows relentlessly in our faces. I
look down at the enormous tractor wheel and think were it not for
Plan Pakistan's Co-ordinator For Disaster Relief, Uzma Shafi
holding tightly to my arm, I'd be squashed like an ant in the next
ditch.
But Shona and I know we're
lucky to get this ride. Normally Uzma and Usma, from our local
partners Doaba walk for an hour along dusty path to get to Lashkar
Pur village, where Plan works with a children's DRR group.
On our way we pass countless
houses, demolished by the devastating floods in August. I prepare
myself to hear sad accounts of loss and damage. But when we arrive
at Lashkar Pur, we hear a different story to most that have come
from Pakistan in recent months.
The children are bright-eyed
and eager to tell us how they prepared for the floods - regular
calls to local officials to check on the level of water, gathering
essential belongings, and setting out an action plan in case of
evacuation.
They show us a mock drill and
their leader, 11-year-old Rashid, tells us how all the villagers
managed to escape the floods with their food stocks and animals.
They built a wall around their houses to try and protect them from
the water and some houses survived.
Not far away, in Nawa
village, the scene couldn't be more different. Crumbling buildings,
fallen trees and collapsed walls reveal the destruction of the
flood. Families are braced for the cold winter months spent living
in tents handed out by relief agencies. Ten-year-old Ayesha
tells us that the water arrived so quickly they fled in only the
clothes they were wearing. As they waded through the water, dead
bodies floated past her: "I was scared the same thing would happen
to me." Her family sought shelter on hilly sand dunes 20km
from their homes. They slept in the open air for two months,
relying on the kindness of strangers for food. While there, her
four-year-old sister had dysentery and died. Now Ayesha
refuses to leave her village and go to school, terrified the floods
will come again. She worries that Allah sent the floods as a
punishment because she wasn't always good.
We return two days later to
celebrate the opening of Plan's Child Friendly Centre in Nawa. The
huge pink tent is full of children excitedly playing with toys and
drawing pictures. Outside boys are playing cricket. A drum is
beating and someone is playing the bagpipes. I find Ayesha
amongst the crowd playing a game with her friends. She seems like a
different child as she laughs and chases another girl. At the end
of the day I ask her how she feels: "I'm really happy -
before we were all scattered but now all my friends are here. I
think I will go back to school, but most of all I'm going to come
and play in the centre."
Situation Report
22 October 2010
According to Latest NDMA figures, the floods have
claimed 1974 lives and injured 2940 people. Almost 1.9 million
houses have been damaged and more than 20 million people have been
affected in 78 districts of Pakistan. An area of at least 160,000
km2 has been ravaged by floods. Over 2.2 million Hectares of crops
have been destroyed and over 10,000 schools have been
damaged.
In northern Sindh, returns have started mainly in three
districts (Kashmore, Jacobabad and Shikarpur). In southern Sindh,
return movements are taking place within Thatta district. Overall
return movements in Sindh include an estimated 386,547 flood
affected people out of a reported 1.4 million who were living in
camps and informal settlements. Whilst returns are taking place in
parts of southern Sindh, in some areas, such as Dadu district,
people remain trapped by stagnant flood waters, and require urgent
support.
There are also reports of people returning home and
facing secondary displacement as a result of contaminated water
sources and lack of access to basic services. Provincial
authorities estimate that around 1.4 million people have been
living in informal settlements and organised camps, including
schools. Closure of schools that have functioned as temporary
shelter for IDPs is ongoing, creating new demands on the provincial
authorities and the humanitarian community to ensure appropriate
conditions in the relocation of IDPs to camps, as well as voluntary
and informed returns.
Source: NDMA and UNOCHA
report
Nadia's story
6 October 2010
Millions in Pakistan are facing a future with no home,
provisions or income, unless they receive considerable
support.
Walking onto Nadia's property from the main road, I sidestep
muddy puddles and fallen trees to enter the main compound. Broken
furniture is strewn over the yard, which is partly covered by a
tent where Nadia's sister lives with her family, now that their
house has been completely destroyed. Nadia was slightly more
fortunate - her house is still standing, though the doors now hang
off the hinges and the rotten smell of dampness fills the small
rooms inside.
She points to a spot about halfway up the doorframe. "This is
where the water came up to" she tells me.
Nadia and her family escaped with their lives, and returned
after 27 days of homelessness to find their property and future in
tatters. As subsistence farmers with very little income, before the
flood they survived on the food they grew and the animals they
kept. Like most subsistence farmers in this area, they harvested
wheat from their rented land and stored it to feed the family until
the next harvest. This year's wheat stores, only three months old,
have been completely destroyed by the flood.
Nadia looks at me with tears in her eyes. "The crops are
destroyed, and all our stored food is destroyed. The only food we
have now is the food that we are given. We also need water - we
have four handpumps on our property but the water is no longer safe
to drink. We also need to buy medicines for the children".
This mother is right. The children have developed scabies, and
look malnourished. They haven't eaten properly in over a month.
Flies gather around their eyes and mosquitoes born from the
stagnant flood water are a constant health threat. I can only
imagine how distressing it would be to have a child in such bad
health and not be able to do anything about it.
Despite her grave concerns over the future for her
children, Nadia lights up when I ask her about their education.
"The water may be gone, and then the children can return to school.
All their books have been damaged or lost, but we will cope." She
pulls some dirty notebooks out of a small backpack. "This is my
daughter's homework. It's been ruined by the water, but she will go
back to school."
As I walk back up to the main road, I look back at Nadia
and think about what her situation will be in two weeks, three
months, one year - I hope that it's better than what she has now,
and that somehow, she's managed to rebuild her
life.
~ This story was provided to SchoolAid by Charlotte
Strong, from PLAN.
Why donate to the Pakistan Appeal?
24 September 2010
Checkout this thought provoking report from the ABC's Behind The
News Program. It is an interesting look at the disaster in Pakistan
and why people have been reticent to donate.
SchoolAid takes the uncertainty out of donating. We have
done the research and made sure your funds are used effectively
to help children in crisis.
A HUGE thank you to all the schools who have contributed to
SchoolAid's Pakistan Floods Appeal, keep those messages of hope
coming!
Tens of thousands left homeless in Pakistan, amongst them a 14 year old mother and her two month old baby
6 September 2010
Aqeela, just 14 years old, and baby Farah, were
forced to flee their home in the district of Muzaffargarh in
southern Punjab and are now amongst the many thousands seeking
relief from the floods, in Pakistan's sprawling makeshift
camps.
"In the middle of the night, we heard an announcement from the
loud speaker of the nearby mosque about flood waters approaching
fast and urging people to vacate the area immediately to save
lives," said Aqeela, gently rocking her crying two month-old
girl.
"We were running and there were roars of gushing waters behind
us and screams of women and children. It was very frightening. I
was holding my sleeping baby in my arms and with all the women folk
of our village heading towards the road. Some of our men stayed
behind to guard the houses.
"We finally reached a high embankment and stayed there for the
night. No one slept. In the morning we saw water all around us and
our mud houses were completely destroyed. We could see some
of our men on top of the brick houses which survived and some were
clinging onto the trees."
Like many families, she said they do not know where all the men
of their families are now.
"We have learnt that our houses are gone, crops are under water,
we are destitute," she said.
She is receiving food at the camp, one of some 140,000 people
currently being helped with such aid, including special rations for
young children.
Babies are particularly vulnerable and both they and their
mothers are at risk of waterborne diseases, skin infections and
malnutrition in the overcrowded camps.
Aid organisations in the area have been supplying thousands of
hygiene kits to families and raising awareness of the need to stay
healthy in the camps where there is a chronic shortage of medics
and doctors.
Case study and image courtesy of
Plan
Flooding increases landmine risks to Pakistan communities
1 September 2010
The disastrous flooding in Pakistan has dislodged and carried
landmines to communities previously deemed safe or demined,
increasing risks to the already vulnerable population, the
International Red Cross (ICRC) warned on Tuesday.
In one instance, a woman's leg was blown off after she stepped
on a mine while collecting firewood in places she used to frequent
before the flood. 'This incident occurred in the area which
is far away from places where incidents have been reported in the
past,' said Luiza Khazhgerieva, an official from the International
Committee of the Red Cross, who did not have figures on the number
of unexploded ordnance in Pakistan.
'Big explosions have been seen by local people in moving flood
water there,' she noted, adding that this could be due to an
explosive colliding with a hard surface.
Reportedly since the beginning of the floods, 'three children, a
woman and a man have been severely injured' by
landmines. A campaign has been stepped up, to remind the
population of the dangers of landmines.
Experts say initial assessments show the scale of damage and human suffering in Pakistan dwarfs the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 2005 Kashmir earthquake, 2008 Cyclone Nargis disaster in Burma, and Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti -- COMBINED.
24 August 2010
To get an appreciation of the magnitude of the disaster in
Pakistan, here are some excerpts from a NY Times article "Flood
Disaster May Require Largest Aid Effort in Modern History":
"A food crisis is also possible if food assistance is not reached
soon enough," warned Martin Mogwanja, the United Nations' chief
humanitarian relief coordinator in Pakistan. "And if [aid is] not
provided soon enough, there could be a second wave of death caused
by waterborne diseases such as gastroenteritis and acute waterborne
disease," he told reporters in a teleconference yesterday
Officials say about 800,000 to 900,000 homes have been destroyed or
made unlivable. The government believes 4.6 million have been left
homeless in just two provinces, Punjab and Sindh.
Pakistan's agricultural economy, the source of income for about 70
percent of the population, has borne the brunt of the damage.
U.N. officials figure that more than 200,000 head of livestock have
been killed in the flooding. And the nation's cotton crop, an
important source of export earnings, has largely been wiped out
after 1 million acres of the crop was lost to floods in Punjab.
(photograph courtesy of Plan
Australia)
Shenaz, 20, and her two-day-old son at a primary school in Muzzafargarh that serves as a shelter. Shenaz and her family walked miles to escape flooding in their village. (Photo: Jason Tanner for Save the Children).
20 August 2010
The Emergency: Up to 20 million Pakistani
children and women are affected by the worst monsoon flooding in a
century in northern Pakistan. The epic floods have damaged,
destroyed or cut off hundreds of villages and communities. Tens of
thousands of children and families remain marooned in villages
without clean water, adequate shelters, medical care and are
dangerously low on food. More flooding is expected as the
monsoon season continues through September; the flooding is also
expected to have far-reaching consequences across Pakistan as some
17 million acres of crops have been destroyed. This will
greatly worsen an already difficult national food crisis and impact
families' ability to earn incomes. Although most road
networks remain closed, the road from Peshawar to Dera Ismail Khan
has re-opened, allowing for easier transportation of relief goods.
Most roads in Allai Valley are now also open. (courtesy of Save
the Children)
The Impact on Children: Children are always
among the most vulnerable during emergencies. Some 6 million
children are believed to be affected by the flooding; of them an
estimated 3.5 million girls and boys are at high risk of deadly
water-borne diseases, including diarrhea, dysentery and typhoid. In
the Sindh District alone, some 1.5 million people, mostly women and
children, have been evacuated from their communities or are on the
move seeking relief. The destruction of homes and displacement is
exposing children to adverse conditions in temporary encampments.
Limited access to health services for newborns is also of grave
concern as pregnancy and childbirth are critical periods for the
survival of women and babies. There are also reports that some
2,000 schools have been damaged or destroyed, dealing a major
setback in children's education. (courtesy of Save the
Children)
An update
17 August 2010
Did you know that if each school in Australia raised $100, this
would mean that over a MILLION dollars of aid would be raised
altogether!
Come on Aussie kids! Let's show the world that WE
care, and that we can all make a difference together, no matter the
size- it is ALL IMPORTANT!
Breaking news
15 August 2010
According to the Met-Department's weather advisory, a fresh
monsoon low pressure, after developing in Bay of Bengal, has
entered the eastern parts of India. This weather system is likely
to move west-northwest ward during the next 24 hrs. Under the
influence of this weather system, monsoon currents of light to
moderate intensity are expected to penetrate in Punjab, Sindh and
Kashmir. The intensity of monsoon currents is very likely to
increase from Monday, and therefore more monsoon
rains/thundershowers are predicted in Pakistan.
RT @MummysWishInc: Our target markets and audience for these events would be 25-50 year old women - who wants their product or service in front of 10,000 women - about 1 years ago
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4 October 2011
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