From RAWCS Southern Region 15 October 2010
RAWCS REPORT – DISASTER AID AUSTRALIA – EB FRIEDRICH
I am currently based in Islamabad, Northern Pakistan from 3rd Oct for 1 month overseeing the distribution of survival boxes to flood affected victims.
We are supplying aid to 3 districts centred on Mardan in the NW Frontier, severely affected by flooding from the Indus, Swat and Kabul rivers. The 3 districts are Charsadda, Nowshera and KPK.
Flood damage is extensive with 5 kilometre wide sheets of water up to 2 metres deep. Affected homes are mainly mud brick houses – the standard form of home building. The flooding has subsided but the river courses have changed and whole villages have been obliterated. Additionally up to 2 metres of silt now covers much of the former agricultural land making crop planting impossible without heavy machinery to remove the sand. 75% of Pakistani people rely on subsistence agriculture.
Most water wells are covered in and potable water supply is a big issue. We are finding families still living under plastic sheets. Winter is coming with temperatures reducing to 2 – 5 C. Currently it is mid 30’s but getting cooler daily. Apart from shelter, water and blankets are urgently required. Disease is rife with in some villages we visited, malaria affecting up to 75% of the population and dengue fever up to 25% of the population. Medical facilities are very primitive.
Disaster Aid International has provided survival boxes complete with large tents to 292 families, with a further 384 boxes arriving early next week – aid for nearly 700 families. Additionally we are providing 8 Skyjuice water filtration plants, each capable of providing up to 10,000 litres of water per day indefinitely and 5000 personal Life Straws from Disaster Aid UK .
DAI is working in partnership with an in country NGO – Interfaith League Against Poverty (ILAP), who are providing the massive logistics support and assessments required. Unlike other relief agencies we are determined to set up tents at affected people’s home sites – this is much more preferable than setting up tent cities which other providers have done but which causes ongoing issues with regard to camp management, food, sanitation etc.
Despite our aid and that of others, the need is massive and we can only help a fraction. The people lie on the extreme end of the poverty line.
We drive to the affected areas which are about 90 mins away only about twice weekly and have to change location frequently and spend minimal time in the field because of the unstable security situation. We are always accompanied by armed police with automatic weapons. Yesterday the other 2 DART volunteers were accompanied by a crack anti terrorist squad. In Islamabad we are essentially confined to our hotel and have to limit and pre plan any movements making simple things like eating out or shopping a risky adventure. In the villages, even the locals walk around armed – you don’t know who is friend or foe. We have been continuously assured by the locals, who are so immensely grateful, they almost drop to their knees in gratitude, that the areas know about the Australian aid workers and that we would not be harmed – after all we have a strong cricketing relationship! We have even been called “messiahs”.
The locals we visit plus all the Pakistan people we meet are so extraordinarily friendly. Even the poorest families we visit, living under tarps offer us tea and whatever they have to eat – very humbling. We have not experienced any negativity towards our visit – quite the opposite – everyone wants to shake our hands. Even our tough, armed police guards have seen what joy we bring that they greet us with the traditional hugs.
DART trainee Andrew Gunn and myself treated several medical cases for which the people were immensely grateful. But we can’t be complacent.
Our main role is to ensure aid is delivered and to this end we have recorded every single box sent to Pakistan complete with an identifier, family name, number of family members and photographs of each recipient with the aid – I don’t think any other aid agency can provide such 100% accountability.
We have trained the ILAP volunteers in tent erection and they are now very quick and their assessments are beyond reproach despite pressures to provide aid from those who don’t need it. We provided them with 4 digital cameras to provide the recording. This saves us doing it and taking enormous resources for security. Nonetheless we visit the field as often as we can.
This now the 3rd team of Disaster Aid Response team members – I am leading the last team.
RAWCS members may wish to know what the in country Rotary involvement is – unfortunately in this deployment, nothing? DAI contacted every Rotary club in this area several times and received no reply. In hindsight that was a blessing because the Rotary clubs here could not provide anywhere near the logistic support which is required and which is being done superbly by ILAP. ILAP have permanent staff, volunteers, and offices, vehicles, warehousing and other in country resources which Rotarians here could not match.
Nonetheless I have kept the district governor informed and we meet regularly with the Rotary Club of Rawalpindi who have “adopted us” and made us feel very welcome. I have been invited to a District Assembly meeting at Peshawar on the 17th Oct and also to give a brief presentation of our activities. CD’s of our activities in Pakistan are available from the DAA offices. We have another team about to deploy to Sudan to house some of the 200,000 refugees returning now and possible deployments in the next few months to Swaziland and Haiti with independent, overseas funding. I will be running the 7 day residential DART training course from the 25th November for 12 DART trainees.
Regards,
Eb Friedrich
Team Leader - Pakistan
Disaster Aid International
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