The Pakistani people are friends and partners, and the U.S. is standing with them as the tragic human suffering from flooding continues ... Americans have always shown great generosity to people facing crises worldwide. I urge all Americans to join this effort and send much needed help to the people of Pakistan as they face substantial relief, recovery and reconstruction challenges. Financial contributions will go towards providing shelter materials, food, clean water, and medical supplies to those in need.
~ Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton
Let us begin with a look at some health numbers relating to the devastation taking place in Pakistan:
According to this UN news story
3.7 million people have received medical treatment between 29 July - 23 Aug and the breakdown for that treatment is:
* 500,000 cases of acute diarrhea
* 517,000 cases of acute respiratory infections
* 693,000 cases of skin infections
* 94,000 suspected cases of malaria
and to this we can now add:
* 1 confirmed case of cholera
As always,
the children
are at the greatest risk
---------------
Now a chart giving us the numbers in terms of overall mass destruction:
~Source: ReliefWeb
How about this number: 500,000 Pregnant Woman at Risk in Pakistan Floods
"We know that mothers are giving birth in flimsy or crowded shelters, steps away from stagnant water and debris," said Sonia Kush, director of emergency preparedness and response at Save the Children. "And we know the dangers for newborns are extreme - the first hours and days of a child’s life in the developing world are the riskiest, even without the added complications posed by a disaster of this scope. Displacement, increased impoverishment, crowded living conditions, disease and infection are further imperilling the lives of mothers and their newborn babies in Pakistan."
Save the Children says that 100,000 women are due to give birth in the next month and according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately 500,000 flood-affected pregnant women are currently in their second or third trimesters. Nearly 500,000 newborns are expected to be born in the coming half year.
And a number to make you smile: 5,600 babies delivered safely since the floods began.
Newborn's First Bath
Yellow Bath Towels swaddle this newborn
Overall flooding numbers are shocking in their scope:
* 1.7 million acres inundated
* 14,000 square miles of crops lost
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Navy Admiral Mike Mullen toured the area on September 2nd along side his counterpart, Pakistani Army Chief of Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
"The pictures [and] reporting just don’t capture it," the chairman said. Along with his own observations of flooded areas, he added, a briefing slide Kayani showed him helped him to understand the disaster’s magnitude.
"It said that effectively it’s like flooding the entire East Coast of the United States," he said. "I think it’s going to take a considerable amount of time to recover from that."
Moving to higher ground
And because there is always reason to hope, here you can read the story of how last month the Nowsherea district hospital, which provides the main source of healthcare for 1.6 million people, was ruined by the floodwaters. In fact, the last two doctors who had remained behind to aid in the patient evcacuation became trapped on the top floor and had to be air lifted to safety. And now:
Young doctors from Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, arrived with doctors from international aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres, army engineers and university staff, to roll up their shirt sleeves and save the hospital.
Now, after hard work and donations, the hospital has new mattresses and pillows for all 114 beds, there are new delivery tables for the labour ward and the operating theatres are fully functioning.
The walls that were blackened and buried in mud for a week are now a hygienic white, there are working heart-monitor, X-ray, ultrasound and anesthaesia machines, and the damaged water pipe has been replaced.
Yes, there is always hope and as I have said in my previous diaries; through it all, as always the children remain resilient.
A young boy and a kite...
Here's how you can help:
Not all here are able to help with a donation, but what will help is to spread the word. Put up a donation jar where you work. Print out the list of charities and post them at work. Encourage your school child to write a short essay for their class and ask them to bring in donations. Donate Blood. Substitute a donation for a birthday or other gift. Oh, and of course rec this diary so more eyes can see it. Thank you my friends.
I have an extensive listing below of agencies accepting donations. Some are accepting donations in kind and I have bolded those.
Shelterbox:
DONATE
To Text a Donation:
Text "FLOOD" to 27722. Your $10 will go to the State Department Fund for Pakistan Relief that Secretary Clinton announced August 19, and is part of a new effort to bring attention to the need for aid.
Text "SWAT" to 50555 ; $10 goes to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees fund for flood victims
"Text FLOODS to 864233 (UNICEF) to donate $10"
Greg (Three Cups of Tea, Stones Into Schools) Mortenson's non-profit (CAI) recommends supporting a local (Pakistani) group to which donations will likely have a large, immediate, and lasting impact.
Action Against Hunger - contain the spread of water-borne illnesses. It will provide access to clean water through water trucking, repair water points, disinfect contaminated sources, and distribute purification tablets. The response will also include constructing emergency latrines and public sanitation facilities, distributing thousands of hygiene kits, organizing hygiene promotion campaigns, and helping communities clear the streets of rubble and debris. ACF is also planning "cash-for-work" programs to help families regain their livelihoods and will distribute household items. ACF will also provide vouchers to purchase basic necessities and micro-grants for restarting small businesses
ActionAid International USA - will provide immediate support in terms of food, non-food items, water, sanitation, hygiene and construction of shelters
Adventist Development and Relief Agency International - expects to distribute aid such as shelters, blankets, hygiene kits, food, and water
Aga Khan Foundation USA - providing food, temporary shelter, education materials for children, medicines and clean water to affected people. In addition, mobile medical teams have are providing emergency health care
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee - has opened an emergency relief fund and is collecting donations to directly assist the floods victims on a non-sectarian basis
American Jewish World Service - emergency support for victims of the flooding and helping to prevent the spread of disease
American Refugee Committee International - deployed mobile health teams to Baluchistan in Sibi district to provide health assistance. In Swat, mobile health teams have been deployed by boat to reach areas made inaccessible by washed out roads and collapsed bridges. ARC Pakistan’s maternal child health center in Swat remains operational and ARC’s team is distributing non-food items to patients and offering health and hygiene sessions, emphasizing education around contaminated water. The team is also distributing essential medicines
AmeriCare - delivering and distributing lifesaving medical assistance and emergency aid to flood-impacted communities
Baptist World Alliance/Baptist World Aid - sending funds for medical, food and shelter needs
BRAK USA - Pakisan has begun to deliver food packets containing such items at rice, lentils, flour and water purification tablets
Brother's Brother Foundation - plans to send requested donated pharmaceuticals and medical supplies (Gifts In-kind Accepted: pharmaceuticals, medical supplies)
Catholic Relief Services - aid packages include water purification tablets, soap, cookware, jerry cans, mosquito nets and more
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee - intervention that includes tents, mosquito nets, hygiene kits, and trauma counseling. CRWRC will also provide emergency food assistance to 64,000 individuals displaced by the disaster in hard-hit Nowshera and Charsadda Districts of Khyber Paktunkhwa Province. CRWRC will work with Pakistani partner Interfaith League Against Poverty (I-Lap) to provide 8,000 families with a one-month food supply including flour, salt, sugar, oil, beans, and spices
Church World Service - Assistance includes food and non-food relief items, emergency shelter and basic health services
CONCERN Worldwide US - prioritizing the distribution of: clean water, food, shelter, emergency medical assistance, mosquito nets, and basic hygiene and kitchen items
Doctors Without Borders - provides emergency medical care to millions of people caught in crises
Food for the Hungry - distribution of food, NFIs, tents and hygiene kits (Gifts In-kind Accepted: NFIs: mosquito nets, hygiene kits, kitchen sets, cooking stoves as well as water purifying tablets and filters)
Friends of ACTED - essential non-food items, water & sanitation, cash for work, emergency shelter and rehabilitation of basic infrastructure
Giving Children Hope - tents, food and blankets as well as will be sending medical supplies to help those displaced by the flood (Gifts In-kind Accepted: Disaster relief materials: tents, blankets, flashlights, food, etc. [all new and in good dates])
Global Fund for Children - providing emergency support to our grassroots grantee partners in regions affected by the floods in Pakistan to help meet their communities’ immediate needs
HelpAge USA - has partnered with medical aid agency, Merlin International, to provide targeted emergency care to the most vulnerable older people and their families in the Nowshera district in Northwest Pakistan. Preliminary efforts include distributing mobility and hearing aids, emergency health assessment kits, as well as household items such as food, flashlights, bedding, and water containers
International Catholic Migration Commission - medical staff are providing individualized consultations in UC Prango, distributing medications, while also developing referral protocols and coordinating primary health care response with government hospitals, health centres, private clinics and dispensaries
International Medical Corp - support displaced people through mobile medical units serving the hardest hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in the northwest, treating cases of acute respiratory infection, acute diarrhea and skin disease. In addition we have deployed psychologists to address mental health needs, as well as hygiene promoters in the worst affected districts
International Relief & Development - provides safe drinking water, sanitation, household items, and emergency temporary shelter (Gifts In-kind Accepted:Tents, bedding, shelter for children, toys, solar flashlights, livestock feed, medicine to prevent and treat infectious diseases)
International Rescue Committee - water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions
Islamic Relief USA - providing food and water as well as distributing tents and blankets
Life for Relief & Development - tents, blankets, pillows, medicine and medical supplies, hygiene kits which include buckets, towels, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, laundry detergent and food baskets to feed a family of 7 for a month
Lutheran World Relief - In addition to food will distribute shelter kits, jerry cans, plastic mats, hygiene kits and mosquito nets (Gifts In-kind Accepted: LWR accepts quilts, health kits, school kits, baby layettes, sewing kits and soap for distribution during emergencies. Specific information about donating in-kind items is on our website.)
MAP International - coordinating with in-country health institutions and programs for the delivery and dispensing of medicines and medical services (Gifts In-kind Accepted: Accepting appropriate long dated pharmaceuticals, OTC medicines and medical supplies)
Medical Emergency Relief International, USA - has set up 28 health clinics and deployed 18 mobile teams. Merlin medics are running 24-hour clinics in Jalozai camp, home to over 100,000 vulnerable people, in response to a significant spike in diarrhea and other waterborne disease
Medical Teams International - have shipped three containers of medical supplies to partners on the ground in the flood-affected area of the country. The medicines and supplies are enough to help hundreds of thousands of people and are valued at nearly $2 million
Mercy Corp - Mercy Corps helps people in the world’s toughest places turn the crises of natural disaster, poverty and conflict into opportunities for progress. Driven by local needs and market conditions, our programs provide communities with the tools and support they need to transform their own lives. Our worldwide team of 3,700 professionals is improving the lives of 16.7 million people in more than 40 countries
Mercy - USA For Aid & Development - providing food, water and hygiene packages to families left homeless by severe flooding in the northwestern Khyber Pakthunkhwa Province. Each family package contains: 88 pounds of wheat flour, 11 lb. of rice, 6.6 lb. of pulses, 11 lb. of dates, 2.2 lb. of sugar, 1.1 lb. of dry milk, 2 liters of cooking oil, one portable gas stove, matches, one large water proof plastic sheet, one 10-liter jerry can, 5 liters of bottled water, water purification tablets, one towel, toothpaste, 3 toothbrushes, one fingernail clipper, 2 combs and 6 large bars of soap
Operation USA - helps communities at home and abroad overcome the effects of disasters, disease and endemic poverty by providing privately-funded relief, reconstruction and development aid (Gifts In-kind Accepted:Bulk disaster materials including water purification chemicals, shelter supplies, electric generators, medicines and medical equipment are accepted from corporations)
Oxfam America - installing toilets and water-storage tanks and delivering clean water by truck to prevent deadly waterborne diseases from sweeping through communities of displaced people
Plan USA - provision of tents, food and water, as well as health and hygiene kits in shelter camps. Plan is also working with local authorities to monitor and address possible disease outbreak
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance/Hunger Program - provide food, shelter and medical assistance
Red Cross/Red Crescent - In a world of poverty, war, displacement and disaster, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies serves those in need without regard as to race, religion, class or political belief.
Relief International - deployed emergency health units to ensure immediate access to primary care and medical supplies; are distributing Emergency Family Kits that include water purification tablets, clean water receptacles and temporary shelter materials; providing clean drinking water to communities suffering from water contamination and to those with no access to water at all. Our team is organizing the distribution of non-food-items (such as clean clothing, bedding and household items) to children to ensure their survival
Save the Children - Of particular concern is the health of the floods’ youngest survivors. The agency is providing emergency medical care and distributing tents, shelter kits, hygiene kits, food and supplies. Save the Children has mobile health teams working in flood zones and is supporting health clinics. The organization is distributing hygiene and "clean delivery" birth kits and conducting hygiene promotion to prevent the rise in waterborne diseases like acute watery diarrhea. Save the Children also has established a diarrhea center for flood-affected communities in Swat
Solidarity Center - will use relief fund contributions to distribute clothing, medicine, and non-perishable food to displaced workers and their families, build temporary shelters, and assist in providing needed counseling and health care
United Methodist Committee on Relief - providing clean drinking water, food, temporary shelter, and medical aid to tens of thousands of people affected by the crisis
US Fund for UNICEF - have set up nine medical camps and are providing medicine, water treatment tablets, nutritional supplements, hygiene kits, and jerry cans. The agency is also supporting the local authorities by providing clean drinking water
World Food Program USA - providing monthly food rations to flood‐affected communities in 24 districts (Gifts In-kind Accepted: Please contact for more information)
World Vision, United States - has begun distributing food and water to flood survivors, and and plans to provide medical assistance, shelter, hygiene kits and other basic relief items as soon as possible
Laughing Planet has started a Google group to address the crisis in Pakistan. Anyone who would like to get involved or get alerts when a new HELP PAKISTAN diary is posted, please join.
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