The lingering effects of floods in Pakistan hamper recovery months after the monsoons that caused them. Photo: UK Department of International Development, Wikimedia Commons
In early September the monsoon season brought torrential rains, flooding and landslides to Pakistan and northern India, leaving almost 500 dead and thousands injured, homeless and hungry.
In response, the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) has made an initial relief grant of $20,000 through the ACT Alliance.
The grant will support relief work in Punjab, Gilgit Baltistan and parts of Kashmir, where roads, communications infrastructure and thousands of houses and community buildings have been damaged or swept away. Crops, clean water sources and livelihoods have also been severely affected. Thousands are living outdoors, with insufficient food supplies, while others remain vulnerable to further flooding as swollen rivers overflow their banks.
The current response of ACT, a Geneva-based global humanitarian coalition of more than 140 churches and other organizations including PWRDF, will provide food to 14,800 flood victims, as well as clothing, bedding and household necessities to 7,400. In addition, 400 families will receive shelter kits, and 22,200 people will have access to mobile health-care facilities.
Families like that of Noor Jan, a Pakistani mother of four in the Bagh District of Azad Jammu and and Kashmir, have lost everything. “Eating and living under the open sky is the most difficult experience of my life,” PWRDF quoted Jan as having said. We have lost our house, clothing, bedding, and everything in a sudden wave of floods two days ago.” The family now lives in an open place by a road.
According to ACT, bringing aid will not be easy: “Access to affected communities is currently challenging owing to blocked and flooded sections of roads.”
The situation is particularly acute in Pakistan, which has experienced extreme monsoon floods over the past four years. This year’s floods are the worst to hit Pakistan since 2010, when 1,700 people died. In 2013, 178 lives were lost and about 1.5 million people were affected by widespread flooding. The struggle to recover from previous floods has continued in poor communities, where families have lost their homes and livelihoods. Some areas can remain flooded for months after monsoon season.
You may donate to PWRDF’s response:
By Phone For credit card donations, contact Jennifer Brown at 416-924-9192 ext. 355; toll-free at 1-866-308-7973.
Please do not send your credit card number by email or fax.
By Mail Please make cheques payable to PWRDF, mark them “Pakistan Floods” and send them to The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund , Anglican Church of Canada, 80 Hayden St., Toronto, ON M4Y 3G2.