Clean water: A pump installed by Tearfund for flood survivors. Photo: Richard Hanson/Tearfund
28 July 2011
New homes, help with growing food and improved access to clean water – just some of the ways Tearfund has helped thousands of people affected by last year’s flooding in Pakistan.
Monsoon rains caused a deluge that swept from the north to the south late last July, submerging a fifth of the country, an area roughly the size of England.
In the process some 1,700 Pakistanis died, nearly 2 million homes were damaged or destroyed and 18 million saw their lives in some way affected.
Within days of the worst flooding in living memory, Tearfund partners were responding with emergency aid, such as food, cooking utensils, mosquito nets and hygiene kits.
But in the months since, relief efforts have turned to long term projects to help people get their lives back on track, work which, thanks to generous support for our Pakistan appeal, will continue for another two years.
We’re targeting the most marginalised and vulnerable sectors of Pakistani society and the efforts of partners and Tearfund teams on the ground will concentrate on:
- Restoring livelihoods
- Rebuilding community infrastructure
- Providing shelter
- Health and hygiene promotion, including providing water sources and latrines
- Training people so they are better prepared for disasters and able to cope when they happen
We’ve already helped build 150 flood-resistant homes, constructed on raised platforms, and have given 2,000 farmers seeds so they can resume crop growing to provide themselves with food and a livelihood.
Some 500 water filters have been distributed, offering an effective and reliable way for people to produce safe and clean drinking water, cutting illnesses that reduce people’s quality of life and ability to support themselves.
For more detail about the work of Tearfund partners and our own team in Pakistan click here.