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Pakistan

Pakistan: Blankets aid wintertime survival

By ERIC BLOCK | March 13, 2006

Oghi Village, Konch Valley, Pakistan -- The recent thaw is a welcome sign to students at Al-Hamid Public School here. They survived last October's earthquake and lived precariously through a Himalayan winter in makeshift shelters, thanks in part to an unusual piece of material provided by Mercy Corps donors.

When the quake wiped out most of the houses in this remote mountainous region just weeks before the typically harsh winter arrived, there were fears that a second wave of deaths would result from the cold weather. But a coordinated response by the government and international humanitarian agencies, including Mercy Corps, helped avert another disaster.

Throughout the bitter winter months, our distribution teams traveled to dozens of isolated villages armed with critical supplies: wood-burning stoves, metal roofing material, quilts and bundles of high-tech survival blankets.

From our base in the Mansehra district of the North West Frontier Province, our teams -- traveling by jeep or by helicopter -- delivered hundreds, sometimes thousands, of these blankets each day. In all, a total of 175,000 blankets will be distributed.

Here in Oghi, each of the 208 students who attend the town's tent school were given a blanket to take home after being shown how to use them to stay warm. Many students used them as shawls during the day and as an extra blanket at night. Families also hung them on the walls of their makeshift shelters to retain the precious heat. The blankets were key items in what Mercy Corps dubbed its "warm room" package, a lifesaving bundle of relief materials for families in need.

Together with Richard Berger, a Seattle entrepreneur, blanket manufacturer AFMInc. and global shipper DHL, our donors chose to make a difference in the lives of thousands of people who survived one of the deadliest earthquakes in modern history.

Individual donations paid for the purchase, storage and delivery of these blankets throughout the disaster zone -- including the ones to the Al-Hamid Public School.

"Mercy Corps brought many things for us and cooperated with us," said the school's headmaster, M. Aftab. "We are thankful for Mercy Corps. We were in great trouble, but now things are running smoothly."