26 October, 2005

BACKGROUND OBJECTIVE

PROPOSED PROJECTS:

1. Continue the provision of tents 2. The adoption of a tented village(s)

3. Continue the supply and distribution of dry food rations, warm clothing and blankets to earthquake victims in remote rural locations as well as tented villages 4. Provide cooked meals by having on-site kitchens in tented villages 5. Provide Corrugated Tin Sheets for roofing

6. Sponsor/adopt/support a family

7. Provide a more permanent low cost pre-fabricated fiberglass or wooden homes 8. Provide Clean drinking water by boring for water wells and setting up of water purification camps

9. Provide Artificial limbs to earthquake victims

10.Recruit or employ female doctors and paramedics to work in remote peripheral regions 11.Provide monetary help to families to re-start their livelihoods

12.Re-build schools in certain rural earthquake affected areas 13.Build Free Medical Clinics in the rural earthquake affected areas 14.Provision of medical equipment to main hospitals and relief medical camps

BACKGROUND

The earthquake of Oct 08th 2005 has challenged most relief aid workers by the sheer magnitude of the disaster, the widespread and difficult mountainous terrain, the limited time remaining before the harsh Himalayan winter and a shortage of funds from donors. With at least 50,000 people dead, more than 70,000 injured and more than 3 million earthquake survivors homeless the situation is indeed a difficult one for both the affected ones and those willing to help in alleviating the human suffering.

After the initial immediate relief effort, in which there was a tremendous outpouring of emotional humanitarian aid, many working in the field are confronted with the challenges of prioritizing the needs for the intermediate relief and the more permanent rehabilitation phase. There are so many problems that need to be addressed in so many different disciplines and geographical areas simultaneously, that if things are not coordinated and prioritized correctly, a second catastrophe will unfold if relief aid does not get to all the earthquake victims in time. There are still 15-20% of affected areas that are still inaccessible by road. Soon the snows will fall and create further logistic problems in getting to the affected survivors.

Some NGOs and aid agencies are working on the permanent rehabilitation of the affected survivors, while others are working on the intermediate rehabilitation with an objective to survive through the winters. Tented villages are not a permanent rehabilitation solution under any circumstances and especially inappropriate in snow bound areas. Yet at the same time, more permanent pre-fabricated housing or shelter can not be provided to all the survivors before the winter which has just about started. Due to the limited time in hand, the dilemma is to be able to have adequate resource to provide immediate shelter from the winter now and then provide a more permanent rehabilitation solution once the winter snow thaw in the spring of 2006.

OBJECTIVE :

With a finite amount of resources, it is important for us all to carefully decide how best we can act under the circumstances. The donation of funds, relief goods and medical supplies that we have received need to be allocated in the most effective manner and also in keeping with the wishes of the donors. Hence, we feel that it is important for all of us to brainstorm this matter collectively to come up with the most appropriate, realistic and practical solution for implementation. Please keep in mind that it will be our objective to rehabilitate the earthquake victims to at least their Oct 7th standard of living. Furthermore, in the rehabilitation phase it will be important not to make the Earthquake victims dependant on the aid they receive for a moment longer than necessary.

We have therefore generated a feedback form on our web site for all participants to contribute by giving their suggestions and comments.

There are several ideas, options and concepts that are being worked upon but all need detailed thought and planning if they are to be implemented effectively. Some of them are being listed below along with certain comments to initiate the discussion. You are all requested and strongly encouraged to raise your questions and give your comments and suggestions by calling or writing to us on the contact details provided or submitting your feedback on the feedback form provided on this web site. Thank you for your participation and valued contribution.

1. Continue the provision of tents

Without any doubt this is the most immediate priority before winters setting in. However, the Government has taken a major initiative on this by banning the local sale of tents to anyone other than the Government itself. This has forced us to source suitable relief tents from neighboring countries like China and India. Tents are available on reasonable lead times but what ever tents need to be provided need to be done so latest by end November. The tents obtained can be donated to specific tented village run by the armed forces or local Government.

2. The adoption of a tented village(s)

The Government of Pakistan is looking for any agencies willing to sponsor or adopt a tented village. This entails the provision of tents the number of which is dependent on the adopting agencies capacity. Adoption entails providing tents, bedding/blankets, food, clean drinking water and sanitation facilities. Additional responsibilities such as the provision of schools, medical services, mosque, etc can also be provided by the adopting agency. However the Government is prepared to assist in such matters. Issues regarding security and administration of the tented village are best left to the Army. The location of such tented villages will be in the lower areas where snow fall is not expected to be a problem. Such tented villages would need to be run for a minimum of 5 to 6 months. It would be up to the adopting agency to collaborate with other NGOs and relief agencies to provide various services within the tented village.

Although, this is a very effective solution, our concern with this option would be to have an "exit" strategy for the more permanent rehabilitation of the earthquake victims.

3. Continue the supply and distribution of dry food rations, warm clothing and
blankets to earthquake victims in remote rural locations as well as tented villages

This has been a major part of our immediate relief effort to the earthquake survivors. This service will continue to be required till such time that the Government sets up all

of its planned tented villages. The demand for this activity is significantly reduced although still much needed. The need is anticipated to continue till end November to mid-December.

4. Provide cooked meals by having on-site kitchens in tented villages

Recent cases of women and children being burnt to death in tent fires have prompted the Army to "ban" the cooking of food inside the tents by the inhabitants. Cooking is now conducted in the open in designated cooking areas. However, the long term implementation and enforcement of the "ban" will be difficult to manage. The Army is looking for help from willing NGOs to set up on-site kitchens to provide cooked meals to the inhabitants of the tented villages.

5. Provide Corrugated Tin Sheets for roofing

Corrugated Tin Sheet roofing is commonly used on houses in the affected areas. In addition, during the earthquake it was noted that there were a greater number of survivors in houses that had a tinned roof as compared with those that had a concrete or mud roof. The provision of Corrugated Tin Sheet Roofing is a major economic cost for the rebuilding of houses.

6. Sponsor/adopt/support a family

This is a detailed scheme in which both donor and recipient families are identified and through an intermediary agency such as us, the needs of both the donor and recipient families are taken care of. Care will be taken not to make the recipient family dependant on the donor family and the process will be limited to a fixed duration (e.g. one or more years) with certain rehabilitation objectives to be fulfilled in the process. (Further details on this can be obtained upon request)

7. Provide a more permanent low cost pre-fabricated fiberglass or wooden homes

This can be implemented immediately in areas that are not affected by snow during the winters. The affected areas surrounding Gari Habibullah, Mansehra, Shinkiari, Buttal and Batgram can implement such schemes immediately. However for the more snow affected areas such schemes would need to be held back till March/April 2006 for implementation.

8. Provide Clean drinking water by boring for water wells and setting up of water
purification camps

Many wells and spring water sources have been damaged of blocked as a consequence of the earthquake. Furthermore, the Earthquake survivors who will be relocated to tented villages will require sources of clean drinking water to the areas to which they will be relocated.

9. Provide Artificial limbs to earthquake victims

Many of the injured Earthquake victims had injuries that resulted in amputations of limbs. As part of a longer rehabilitation process, many victims will need to be provided with artificial limbs.

10. Recruit or employ female doctors and paramedics to work in remote peripheral
regions

Due to cultural issues, many of the local women are reluctant to be examined by male

doctors. Hence, it has been noted that there has been a sharp reduction in women patients being evacuated by helicopters or coming for medical aid to relief camps. Due to the circumstances and situation on ground it is difficult to find volunteer relief women doctors and paramedics who are prepared to stay for durations greater than 4 to 5 days. Although this is an important and immediate need, this service will only be required for 45 to 60 days after which all the major cases would have been treated and brought to routine management.

11. Provide monetary help to families to re-start their livelihoods

Many of the earthquake victims are too poor to rebuild their lives. Some who were subsistence farmers and who have lost some livestock would require financial aid to purchase livestock to attain their previous way of living. Others would need monetary assistance to help them purchase reconstruction materials to rebuild their houses.

12. Re-build schools in certain rural earthquake affected areas

For some reason (probably poor construction standards and corruption) many schools simply collapsed in the affected areas. This resulted in a very high death toll amongst children. In keeping with one of KLWT's previous mandates, the reconstruction and sponsoring of a school(s), in collaboration with the local Government is a high priority of our rehabilitation agenda. However, as mentioned earlier, the immediate issue at hand is that of surviving the winters. Only if the children survive this winter, will they need a school!! With limited financial resources, will we be able to manage and sustain both the relief effort required for the earthquake victims to survive the winter as well as have long term funding available to reconstruct and sponsor a school(s)?

13. Build Free Medical Clinics in the rural earthquake affected areas

Many of the Hospitals and medical clinics that were in the area have been destroyed. It will take the Local Government several years to re-construct many of the destroyed hospitals and it will be an even greater challenge for them to find qualified doctors to staff such clinics in the rural areas. With our prior experience in running medical clinics, it is certainly one of the easier options to implement.

14. Provision of medical equipment to main hospitals and relief medical camps

This is an on-going relief effort being conducted by KLWT in the wake of the earthquake. However, after the initial focus being directed towards the earthquake affected areas, it has now been shifted towards the main cities and tertiary hospitals where the more serious earthquake victims have been transferred. There are many patients who require specialized orthopedic surgery and prostheses which are not available with many of the local hospitals. Such items are available for purchase in the market but are not affordable for the earthquake victims.