Save the Children is pleased to share the work they are doing in the region in response to the tragic flooding. Across large areas of Pakistan, the worst monsoon rains in recent memory are flooding scores of communities and creating a humanitarian disaster. Up to 20 million children and adults are believed to be affected, many of whom are in villages largely inaccessible and without clean water or food.
With programs in Pakistan for 30 years and the capacity to mount large-scale relief, Save the Children quickly deployed staff and launched a humanitarian response. We are working with national, district and local governments and using all means of transportation available, including helicopters, mules and boats, to send health staff and supplies to communities that have been cut off due to flooding. Save the Children has to date reached over 50,000 children and adults through medical care and distributions of food, shelter materials and hygiene kits. Currently, we are distributing food vouchers to 20,000 families in Dir, Shangla and Swat. In Swat, we have already provided food to over 5,000 people and we will provide up to 15,000 families in Muzaffargarh with food from the World Food Program this week. We will continue to provide much-needed food, emergency health services, hygiene kits and tarpaulins to the most inaccessible and hardest-hit parts of the region. Please visit their blog “Voices from the Field,” an ongoing log of emergency responses.
The Pakistan Research Group focuses on development-oriented research in Pakistan. It is a is a partner of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research North-South (NCCR N-S), financially supported by Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), and Swiss universities.
Mehreem Zahra-Malik of "The Friday Times" (Lahore) has written articles on law and blasphemy and religious nationalism in Pakistan.