Six months after the quake which devastated
large areas of northern Pakistan, living conditions remain dire in the
affected areas. Suitable shelter, health and sanitation facilities, proper
schooling and clean water are among the many needs of children and families.
SOS Children's Villages continues providing aid for affected children and
families.
"The needs of the children
are great," said Safia Awan, Vice-President of SOS Children's Villages
Pakistan. "Living conditions in the affected areas are harsh and arduous.
The children require suitable shelter, hygienic living conditions, proper
schooling and water for drinking and bathing. A person visiting the affected
areas for the first time would be horrified by the conditions."
The "search and rescue" team of SOS Children's Villages, who look for orphaned and unaccompanied children in the quake-hit areas while distributing relief goods, report that the health and sanitation facilities in the camps are still inadequate and that water supplies are so scarce that bathing is a luxury. In addition, proper schooling is needed for the children while most of the food supplied does not cater to the nutritional requirements of growing children.
Following the harsh winter that brought heavy snowfall, rain and landslides to the quake-hit areas, the impending arrival of summer and high temperatures will bring different types of problems such as malaria, diarrhoea, dehydration, typhoid and gastroenteritis. In addition, the monsoon rains can be as devastating as a harsh winter, and if water levels increase due to flash floods, dams may break and result in catastrophic floods. "In summer, when temperatures frequently exceed 40 degrees Celsius, it will be very difficult for people to live in the tents without fans," said Safia Awan.
SOS Children's Villages is currently providing security, shelter, food, medical care, schooling, therapeutic activities and psychological support at its various facilities in Rawalpindi, Sialkot and Lahore for some 150 orphaned or unaccompanied children from the quake-hit areas. Therapy for the children is mostly carried out via painting, games and other activities.
The "search and rescue" team of SOS Children's Villages continues to search for such children and have identified many others, who will be brought to the organisation's various facilities. "It is important that the children return to a normal routine as quickly as possible. Nightmares are a problem for some of the children but this disappears once they are offered comfort and begin to feel safe," said Safia Awan. "Children need to feel safe, they need to feel loved, and they need structure and consistency in their lives. SOS Children's Villages provides these children with these needs."
Children in the organisation's care are registered with NADRA, which is responsible for maintaining the database for all citizens of Pakistan. So far three fathers have been located while several siblings, who were separated by the 8 October 2005 earthquake, were successfully reunited. Orphaned children or those who cannot be reunited with their families will be offered long-term care in a family environment at SOS Children's Villages in Pakistan.
Families in the quake-hit areas urgently require semi-permanent and permanent shelter. With a grant donated by the Hilton Foundation, SOS Children's Villages last week obtained and delivered corrugated steel sheets for the construction of 95 family homes in Chikar. Eleven steel sheets are required for one home, which families are building with the help of Pakistan's army, which helped set up the wooden frame structures for the houses.
"The sooner the population can be made self-sufficient, the sooner daily life will begin to head towards normalcy. People will feel some normalcy once they have suitable shelter," said Safia Awan, adding that basic health units, water and a continuous supply of food rations are also required until the population is able to cultivate their land again, replace their livestock, revive or explore alternative water sources and become self-reliant for food.
Over the past months, SOS Children's Villages has also boosted its emergency aid efforts in the quake-hit areas, and is currently distributing a further 100 weatherproof tents in addition to the more than 1,000 tents the organisation has already handed out. These new tents are large and are intended for educational, medical and other community centres. Recently, the organisation also bought and sent various sewing, knitting and embroidery machines to a vocational centre in Ghari Dopatta which had been destroyed by the quake.