Six months after the Kashmir earthquake
03/04/2006
I. SUMMARY SIX MONTHS ON
Immediately after the disaster, SOS Children sent dry food rations, milk, and water to Muzaffarabad for 1,000 victims. Since then, distribution of food packages, blankets and other emergency relief goods has continued; sourcing locally where possible and internationally where not. This included more than a thousand winter-proof family tents, 100 large community use tents, 100,000 energy bars, medical equipment, bottled water, basic building materials etc. SOS Children also set up hub and satellite hospitals around Garhi Dopatta.
SOS Children (as the world's leading orphan charity) was named custodian of all unaccompanied children after the disaster by Pakistan and Kashmir governments. Unaccompanied children have been identified and are accommodated by SOS Children in Pakistan, where they receive care from qualified staff. Children requiring specialized attention, e.g. due to medical problems or physical/mental disabilities, are brought to Lahore. Since the road is frequently blocked, transport in and out of Kashmir is mainly organized by army helicopters. Children are still coming in and a peak of 500 is expected within a month.
The emergency work is still ongoing but plans to rebuild infrastructure have started. Three new Children's Villages will be needed for children orphaned by the earthquake. The construction of at least one of these, and most running costs for all of them will be funded by SOS from inside Pakistan. However, we still need donors for construction costs of some of the family homes in a new village.
We already have funding and arrangements in place to build three new schools (one primary and two secondary) for an area where there is not a single school left standing for 15,000 children. We have already raised funds for these. More projects will be decided as the weather clears and the situation becomes clearer.
Relevant Countries: Pakistan.