Disaster Relief & Mitigation
Disaster Relief and Mitigation is a comprehensive program that immediately responds to disasters in the country. Assistance is provided through relief and rehabilitation activities. The program also engages in disaster risk reduction activities which help prepare communities to cope with future disasters and to evaluate their risks and vulnerabilities.
Assistance to Flash Flood Affected Communities
Pakistan is hit by heavier than usual monsoon rains since 21 July 2010, killing more than one thousand people and leaving thousands of houses damaged throughout the country.
According to the reports of NDMA, the worst affected areas are Bhakkar, Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah, Mianwali, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan and Rajanpur in Punjab province, as well Khyber Pakhtonkhawa (KPK), Sindh and Baluchistan provinces have worst situation due to floods. According to reports more than 20 million of people are displaced due to the flooding and have lost their homes, family members and their property, diseases and snake bites.
Flash floods have caused catastrophic landslides, burying entire villages, and submerging areas across all four provinces. Rivers swollen by torrential rains have burst their banks unleashing widespread devastation, destroying houses, bridges, schools, roads and railway tracks.
Entire communities have been uprooted from their submerged towns and villages. Some have sought shelter with relatives, but most have now where to go. Survivors are taking shelter in schools, mosques and on high ground and roadsides.
Delivery of emergency relief to flood-hit regions has been hampered by the destruction of roads. Weather conditions have also limited the use of helicopters, grounded by heavy rains and strong winds.
Rajanpur is the worst district by flash flood, where more than 829 of mud houses are swept away, more than 85 villages have been affected by the hill torrents/flash floods resulting into more than 1400 deaths.
More than one million people are homeless and have taken temporary shelter on the roads, banks and other higher places. The communities of the affected areas depend on agriculture and livestock. Crops and livestock destroyed and livelihoods of people are uncertain.
A number of major bridges have been washed away and roads and other infrastructure have been badly damaged. The total estimated damages and affected population is still unclear, due to inaccessibility, rising flood waters and disruption to communication networks.
Ecumenical Commission for Human Development has provided humanitarian aid to more than five hundred families and now scaling up early recovery assistance. Our response includes the provision of safe drinking water, and hygiene facilities, as well as tents and food and non food items.
We are very thankful to overwhelming public generosity and institutional funding to support our disaster relief and mitigation program.
Assistance for Religious Minorities
In August 2009, violence against Christians flared in the Punjab town of Gojra. Extremist protesters alleged that the Holy Quran has been desecrated at a Christian wedding, which lead to riots and violence in the town. Dozens of Christian homes were burnt, killing at least 7 people and injuring 18 others.
In response to the situation, ECHD conducted fact find mission, and distributed food packages in two phases to 348 affected families who lost their homes and of those 70 more affected families also received food, non-food items, tarpaulins and blankets.
Relief Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons
In this spring of 2009, the Pakistan military began an offensive against the militant extremists in the Swat Valley. Some three million people were forced to flee their homes in what became the largest and fastest human displacement the world had seen in a decade. Casualties, infrastructure damage, curfews, a lack of basic services and fear compelled millions to flee to safer areas. The crisis knew no class, religion, gender or age and the millions who fled included farmers, teachers, civil servants, doctors, the poorest and the wealthiest, and the elderly and the young.
Families travelled by public transport and by foot, and they mostly came empty handed. The government established camps and the local communities opened their doors to the displaced families. Throughout the extremely hot summer months, displaced families lived in unimaginable circumstances. As the government declared areas safe, most people began returning to their homes. Yet at the same time the military began new operations in South Waziristan causing a new influx of displaced people to host communities.
At the onset of the displacement, Ecumenical Commission for Human Development immediately started mobilizing resources in order to provide life saving humanitarian assistance. ECHD's ongoing assistance included food packages, shelter kits and food assistance to the most vulnerable families. And after receiving international support from our partners, we initiated its operations targeting 1,000 at-risk families as recipients of food packages in Mansehra.
The health team immediately began providing services through its mobile health camps, staff by some volunteers and local physicians. The team provided more than 7,765 consultations and conducted more than 450 health education sessions.
As 2010, continues, new needs are expected to emerge as the fighting continues to spread and hundreds of thousands are forced to flee. ECHD with the support of its partners across the globe will continue to respond where families are most vulnerable and in need of assistance.
Earthquake Relief & Rehabilitation Project
In 8th October 2005, a devastating earthquake erupted in Pakistan, killing over 80,000 people and affected over 4 million people in the North West Frontier Province and the Azad Kashmir region. Severe winter weather in high altitudes and the recurring aftershocks continued to cause landslides, road blockage. With the number of homes destroyed and damaged and the number of people, who were left homeless as well as jobless, the devastation presents a great challenge for those who are supporting the recovery and rehabilitation efforts of the people. Living in tent villages with basic services, coping with injuries and trauma, relying on relief goods, with no means of livelihood has been difficult at best.
The earthquake affected communities were already living in vulnerable circumstances as most people live in disaster prone mountainous rural settlements with fragile economies. They lived with a lack of such basic services and facilities such as clean drinking water and safe waste disposal systems. The disaster increased the vulnerability of these communities.
Ecumenical Commission for Human Development established an office in Mansehra to provide disaster relief support to the affected people and provided shelter, food and non-food items. We made number of earthquake relief trips from October to March 2006 and assisted 500 families, approximately 29,678 individuals of Bhatikah, Hangri, Hasamabad, Hassa, Talhatta, Karnol, Kashtra, Kot Bahallah, Shohal Mazullah villages of Mansehra.
Ecumenical Commission for Human Development began responding immediately to help earthquake survivors by gathering blankets, beddings and clothes in October and medicine from local pharmaceutical companies in November. Ecumenical Commission for Human Development has been able to continue its urgently needed earthquake relief efforts and help to thousands of people because of the generous support of local church congregations, local and international partners.