Dabei ist, auch 20 Jahre nach dem Bürgerkrieg, noch viel zu tun. In den ländlichen Regionen gibt es kaum soziale Infrastruktur, die Alphabetisierungsrate liegt nur bei 50 Prozent. Die Anzahl der Infektionen mit dem HI-Virus und Aids-Erkrankungen steigt hingegen, Mangelernährung ist weit verbreitet was das Immunsystem zusätzlich schwächt. Ich habe viele Projekte gesehen, die unglaubliche Erfolge erzielen. Trotzdem hatte ich manchmal das Gefühl, unsere Arbeit ist nur ein Tropfen auf den heißen Stein. Die Weitläufigkeit des Landes macht es schwer, alle Kinder zu erreichen, die wir erreichen möchten. Aber für jedes Kind, dem wir die Chance auf eine glückliche Zukunft geben können, lohnt sich die Mühe. Und irgendwo muss man ja anfangen.

Der zweijährige Ramzan wird von Save the Children-Mitarbeitern medizinish versorgt

I’m particularly haunted by the memory of a two-year old boy called
Ramzan. When I met him he had spent fifteen days living on a baking
concrete floor, and had watery diarrhoea. As a result Ramzan was
severely dehydrated. A doctor supported by Save the Children explained
he had grave doubts for his chances of survival – diarrhoea is the
number one killer of children under the age of five.

I’m not a father, but some of my closest friends have children Ramzan’s
age. I’ve spent time with their children, and know a well-nourished,
healthy, happy toddler when I see one. Sadly that was not so for
Ramzan.

Through the lens of my camera, I recall Ramzan looked at his mother
Hajra, arms out stretched. It was a pleading look that said, “Please
help me.” Moments after I took
the photograph, he was rushed to hospital. Whether he survived remains
a mystery.

I have uplifting memories too. I especially want to acknowledge the
amazing work of the local Pakistani Save the Children staff whom worked
around the clock to get aid to vulnerable children and families. For
security reasons I cannot refer to them by name, but I feel privileged
to have worked alongside them, and to count them among my friends.

Our work gathers pace in Pakistan due to the support of the donor
community. Thanks to all those who have supported us so far. Rest
assured your donations have helped save the lives of children and
families in one of the world’s worst ever flood disasters.

Malaria und andere Krankheiten bedrohen Kinder im Flutgebiet

After spending three weeks in the cold mountainous environ of the Swat valley, I arrived in the hot and humid climate of Multan to work alongside Save the Children teams working in the worst affected districts of Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan. The floods arrived here a week after the showers began in late July. There were reports of nearly 300,000 people displaced overnight. There was also news of entire villages on the highways and in government schools of Muzaffargarh and Multan. However, none of the reports came close to the reality on ground.

Destruction in Muzaffargarh
The sight of makeshift shelters and tents begins at the border of Muzaffargarh and Multan districts. Long lines of men, women and children are found stranded on both sides of the busy traffic. Besides those displaced from remote areas, people of nearby villages are also found on the highway – their dilapidated homes visible a few meters away. It is mindboggling to consider the populations affected by the floods. For example, the district of Muzaffargarh has four tehsils out of which two, Muzaffargarh and Kot Addo, are completely underwater. The tehsil of Kot Addo alone has 28 union councils and each union council has more than 4000 people. Thus, the lives of approximately 112,000 men, women and children have been disrupted only in Kot Addo. These vast numbers of people do not have food, shelter, clothing, access to health care and have completely lost their livelihoods due to the floods. They will certainly require assistance in the coming months, if not years, to not only resettle and establish their lives but also to rejuvenate their income generating activities.

Relief to Brahimwala
Save the Children is the first humanitarian organization that has provided food rations comprising of wheat, lentils, cooking oil, micronutrient biscuits as well as tents, jerry cans, water buckets and blankets to people who have lost their homes in district Muzaffargarh. During one such distribution to the village of Brahimwala, I learned how the villagers had departed from their homes in haste to reach safe ground 25 kilometers away in the city of Muzaffargarh. They were no registration points or information centers available for the displaced to receive aid. They spent many days under the open sun before finding temporary shelters on open grounds, roads and rampantly setup camps. Food and drinking water distribution was irregular and chaos erupted each time a truck arrived with provisions.

As soon as the waters receded displaced people returned to their homes. Although, most villages are still submerged with the flood’s deluge of putrid water and mud, families have pitched up tents alongside roads and canals. Water in Brahimwala has withdrawn, demolishing each and every house in the village. The conditions are appalling but with nowhere else to turn, people are living amidst mud, flies and the remains of their houses squashed on the ground. The murky flood waters and searing heat has worsened the dismal condition and have increased the prevalence of diseases like diarrhea, malaria, skin and respiratory infections.

Save the Children has provided food rations to 2000 families and will reach another 13,000 families in southern Punjab within the next two weeks. Eight health teams are working in the area and four more will begin operating by the end of this week. Child friendly spaces for children to play and learn, have been established. Each and every member of Save the Children realizes that an intense and continued support is essential to normalize the lives of flood affected people in Punjab.

I’m in Pakistan to help Save the Children generate public interest in the nation’s worst flooding disaster in living memory. An area the size of Italy has been swamped in monsoon floodwater causing mass devastation to infrastructure like roads and bridges. In total the floods that have swept across swathes of Pakistan have impacted a staggering 21 million people. Nearly one million homes have been damaged or destroyed. At least 17 million acres of agricultural land has been obliterated leaving millions without food.

What’s more, up to 8 million children are at risk and especially vulnerable to waterborne illnesses such as diarrhea – a major killer of children under the age of five. Early this week in the southern province of Sindh, the government confirmed the deaths of six children who had died of dehydration caused by severe watery diarrhea.

To compound the misery, officials say that up to 2,000 schools have been destroyed and this will have a major impact on children’s education in Pakistan. Opening temporary schools and reconstruction of damaged schools is essential to ensure that children avoid missing out on their education.

The sad truth is the flooding has affected more people than the Indian Ocean tsunami, Haiti earthquake and Kashmir earthquake combined. Clearly this is an epic disaster that requires an epic response from the donor community.

What is Save the Children’s response? With 500 aid workers in Pakistan we are one of the largest aid agencies working to get life saving aid like food, water and medicine to families and children. What’s more we’ve been working with our trusted network of local Pakistani relief organizations for nearly 30 years, so we’re confident our aid will reach the most in need.

In the last 18 days our mobile health clinics have fanned out across the worst affected areas to reach over 30,000 people in places like DI Khan, Swat, Rajanpur, and Sukkur. Another 20,000 people have been received non-food and food items from Save the Children. Over the next six months we will reach two million people with relief supplies to help them rebuild their shattered lives and livelihoods.

Bitte helfen Sie uns, den Kindern in Pakistan zu helfen. Spenden Sie jetzt!
https://www.savethechildren.de/jetzt-helfen/einmalspende/emergencies/katastrophenhilfe-pakistan/bankeinzug/

Save the Children Nothilfe Koordinatoren berichten über die aktuelle Situation und die gefährlichen Trecks mit Maultieren. Die Helfer sind oft tagelang unterwegs, um die Familien in den abgelegenen Dörfern zu erreichen.

We set off at 0630 from Fateh Pur, a town 15 kilometers outside Saidu Sharif. From here the only road to Kalam had collapsed.

We reached the first town, Adyan, after crossing two hills. The entire shape of the city had changed – the floods created a river that went straight through the middle of town, completely destroying the main market. Mud and dust was everywhere, as were huge boulders that the flood had carried right into town. A lot of people from the town had already left and moved to the southern areas of Swat, but there were still some people there, protecting their homes and property. From Adyan we crossed a temporary bridge – two planks of wood – with the river 10 feet below us, flowing rapidly. When we had crossed the bridge, we saw that the road had collapsed and was 50 meters below where it used to be. So on one side of us was 20-30 meters of mountain face and on the other side was the river. We were forced to walk with the river water up to our knees, hanging on to the rock face. The water was ice cold.

We finally reached a city, Bahrain, which used to be a big tourist destination with lots of hotels, restaurants, and beautiful river side cafes. I was there five years ago on holiday with  my family. The city is now unrecognisable. It is like something has taken a huge pile of rocks and mud and thrown in all over the city. The main bazaar is completely destroyed. Three story hotels have tumbled down and the main road through the town was covered in 5 feet of mud. Small shops and stalls are covered in mud and dust and rocks. Several of the main bridges that people used to commute from one side of the city to the other have been destroyed – some without any remnants at all. But what was most amazing was that the river had completely changed course and was now running 20-30 meters further west from where it was.

We walked along the old river bed out of the city and into the mountains. From here, cars took us along a small stretch of road – about 8 kilometers, to where the road ended. We were then forced to climb a couple of mountains on our right and walk through dense jungle with no sunlight. The only way to get through is via tight lanes and water canals used for irrigation. We walked through a number of mountainous villages and small farms. The majority of the people living here haven’t moved. They are uphill from the river – but have been completely cut off from the rest of the world. Their livelihoods have been totally disrupted – there is no way they can sell their crops at the market.

Moving on, we walked for 6 kilometers in the mountains before we reached Toorwal, where for three hours we had small stretches of road interrupted by mountain – the road had been washed away by the flood water.

We came across a number of villages that had once been next to the river and had been completely destroyed. We met lots of people coming and going – some people, like us, travelling north with food rations. We met children who had 20 kilos of food on their backs for their families. We also met villagers who’d had homes destroyed, heading south in search of help. To reach Mankyal, we had to cross a 20-meter gap between the road and mountain. The bridge was a small tree trunk that the villagers had placed there to get over the river. This was very precarious and had a torrent of raging water running just under it. We had to crawl along. There was a line of people queuing up to get across.

We thought we were nearly there but found the road was destroyed again. We had to climb another two mountains, one of which was over 8,000 feet high, on a very narrow and steep track. We met locals also going to Kalam who said there were cars going the last few kilometers. We were lucky because they had just started operating. We crossed a few more villages, farmland and jungle. Everyone we met was asking if we were bringing aid with us. We met two young brothers, aged just 5 and 9, who told us about their experience. They had lost everything – their clothes, books, even their precious football – so I gave one of my shirts to them.

We then climbed down to where the road took us to Kalam. We had been walking for almost 12 hours – and we didn’t want to miss the jeeps driving to Kalam – which was another 17 kilometers. I couldn’t feel my feet, my back hurt and I had no more strength.  We were so thankful when we saw the Jeeps parked a few kilometers further down. By the time we got there, we realised they were actually waiting for the “two crazy outsiders” who were risking their lives coming here to help. It was nearing dusk and it had just starting to rain. Thankfully it hadn’t rained during our walk as there was always the fear of landslides and slipping.

The Jeep ride was about another hour – we had to go over more canals and broken roads – only just accessible by 4×4. Five years ago when I came to this area, there were hotels and restaurants, and people from all over Pakistan were here on holiday. I can remember so vividly all the lights and noise everywhere. When we arrived, it was as if it was a ghost town, completely pitch black. I couldn’t believe it was Kalam.

Ein Kollege von Save the Children berichtet aus Pakistan von Erdrutschen auf dem Weg nach Swat (siehe Video!) und wie medizinische Versorgungsgüter mit Hilfe von Maultieren transportiert werden.

Save the Children’s Reporting Coordinator in Pakistan

With floodwaters causing havoc down south in Sindh and continuous showers falling in different parts of the country, the current floods in Pakistan are the worst natural disaster in the country’s history.  With entire districts submerged and fear of more flooding from rains in Afghanistan, our work in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is rapidly gaining pace.

In spite of continuous rain, high altitudes and the raging river Indus, Save the Children’s emergency medical team in Allai crossed the Indus River by a hanging trolley. A chain of mules were used for transporting medical supplies to the affected area. Like islands in the vast flooded areas of Dera Ismail Khan, Save the Children’s mobile health teams are providing medical aid to people trapped in their villages and towns. Another team trekked for two days to reach the devastated city of Kalam in Swat, where they have provided 27 metric tons of food (supplied by WFP) to 316 families.

Landslide on Malakand Mountains

After a two day respite in Islamabad, I braved the heavy downpour on my way back to Swat through the mountains of Malakand. Small rocks and sand cluttered the mountainous road until we reached a point where the army’s engineers stopped all traffic. A huge rock was splintering due to the rain, and the entire mountainside was about to collapse. We were stalled until late in the evening — trapped in the dark blue dusk, nearly 200 feet above the valley floor, shrouded in clouds. The rock eventually tumbled down, along with a large chunk of the mountain. A one-way road was carved into the rubble after four hours of incessant shoveling by bulldozers. See a video of the landslide above.

Beautiful Shangla

Yesterday, I visited Swat’s neighboring district of Shangla to assess flood damage. The entire district is a pastel of lush green mountains and valleys, glistening with white rooftops and fresh natural springs gushing into villages and towns. Meetings with government officials and army officers revealed that the entire valley of Shahpur, population of more than 250,000 people, is severely affected and cut off from the rest of Shangla. Nearly 70,000 extremely vulnerable people, with no belongings or stable sources of income, are awaiting assistance in Shahpur. Some 270 houses, seven bridges, two hospitals and four schools have been destroyed, whereas thousands of people have lost their farms, livestock and businesses. Unfortunately, no humanitarian aid has reached the affected people yet. There is only a committee of civil authorities, armed forces and community notables using a chain of 50 mules to transport basic food rations to 1,400 families in the 35-kilometer stretch of the valley.

In this week, we will hopefully provide 1,000 families with tents and shelter kits to make temporary houses as well as 1,500 people with food rations in the distant areas of Upper Swat. We fear more rains, flooding and landslides, but our resolve to assist children and families remains undeterred.

Noch gibt es unterschiedliche Prognosen hinsichtlich einer bevorstehenden Cholera Epidemie im Katastrophengebiet von Pakistan. Eines ist aber sicher: kommt es zum Ausbruch, stehen tausende Menschenleben auf dem Spiel. Gerade in Katastrophenfällen wie in Pakistan ist die Seuchengefahr sehr hoch. Die Wassermassen sind verdreckt und mit einer Vielzahl von Keimen kontaminiert, dennoch trinken die Familien davon, um nicht zu verdursten.

Cholera ist eine bakterielle Infektion des Magendarmtraktes. Ihren geographischen Ursprung hat die Cholera im Flussdelta des Ganges, Indien. Übertragen wird das Bakterium Vibrio cholerae durch kontaminiertes Wasser oder Lebensmittel. Nur in einem Bruchteil der Fälle wird das Bakterium von Mensch zu Mensch übertragen. Besonders tückisch ist die Krankheit, da sie eine kurze Inkubationszeit (1-3 Tage) hat und schlagartig mit heftigstem Brechdurchfall beginnen kann. Innerhalb weniger Stunden verlieren die Erkrankten mehrere Liter Flüssigkeit und der Mineralstoffhaushalt entgleist. Wird der Flüssigkeits- und Elektrolytverlust nicht umgehend ausgeglichen, verläuft die Cholera in vielen Fällen tödlich. Besonders gefährdet sind Säuglinge und Kleinkinder.

Die Behandlung ist einfach und günstig, allerdings in besonders armen Ländern oder in einer akuten Notsituation nicht immer schnell genug zu gewährleisten. In Pakistan ist es jetzt wichtig, die betroffenen Familien mit sauberem Trinkwasser und Nahrungsmitteln zu versorgen und auch im Chaos ein Mindestmaß an Hygienestandard zu schaffen. Wir brauchen Trinkwasservorräte, orale Rehydrationsmittel und Infusionen sowie Antibiotika für besonders schwere Fälle.

Helfen Sie jetzt den Kindern und ihren Familien in Pakistan mit Ihrer Spende!

Kinder sind besonders anfällig für Krankheiten. Es fehlt an sauberem Trinkwasser, Lebensmitteln und Medikamenten.

Save the Children Mitarbeiter Mohammed Qazilbash ist in Pakistan und berichtet über die dramatische Situation vor Ort.

August 5, 2010: “Rains have continued to fall not only in the upper river catchment areas of Pakistan but also in the central parts of the country. Rivers are swelling and bursting their banks. In order to safeguard an irrigation barrage, dykes were deliberated breached to try and reduce the flow of water.

The breach has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people to be forced to leave their dwellings and take refuge on embankments or roof tops. With the monsoon season potentially ending in mid September, the misery of millions of people all across Pakistan will continue for the foreseeable future. Aid agencies such as ours are working hard to try and reach thousands of women and children.

Teams in the north of the country have had to trek through mountains to get to remote areas in order to deliver food, medicines and water to cut off isolated communities. In Southern Punjab small dug out boats will be used for this purpose so that much needed life saving assistance is provided to the vulnerable communities who have had to witness their homes being washed away.”

Ein Junge sitzt auf einem Bett, um sich vor der mitreißenden Flut in Sicherheit zu bringen.

Save the Children Nothilfe Koordinatoren berichten vor Ort über die aktuelle Situation im Katastrophengebiet.

August 3, 2010: “For the past two days, Save the Children teams have been working round the clock to provide immediate relief to the flood-affected communities of Swat. As the water has begun to recede, the sheer scale of this disaster is coming to light.

Every time we receive news of the numbers affected, we become more and more committed to respond to this crisis with all our strength and capacity. Yesterday, two teams of Save the Children staff ventured in different directions to learn the full extent of the damages and map out accessible routes for provision of shelter kits and food rations. One team crossed over to the western side of River Swat into UC Tirat by sitting inside a small cart pulled through a simple rope-pulley apparatus over a fifty meter drop with raging waters below. They learned that thousands of acres of farmland have been ruined and vast numbers of livestock have been swept away by the flood waters. Food shortages are becoming more acute every day – a single bag of wheat is now being sold for 1,100 rupees (double the usual price).

The other team reached Madyan and attended a meeting of government officials, army and community influentials to discuss the emergency response. The market in Madyan now only has a few days stock of rice, cooking oil and lentils remaining. Attempts are being made to control the prices and keep them at affordable levels. There are also plans to transport essential food items on mules from UC Fatehpur.

The team also met people who had been walking from Bahrain for half a day to reach Madyan. They described the worsening situation in the city and the urgent need for food and health care. A few families had walked for two days from Kalam – the farthest most affected city in Upper Swat. They were hosted overnight by strangers in the village of Asreeth. Their stories from Kalam were published in Pakistan’s newspaper today: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=254515

Save the Children began distribution of shelter items to families who have lost their homes in UC Fatehpur. However, heavy rains took place today, stalling the distribution process since the beneficiaries were walking over hills and dirt paths to reach our center. Save the Children been selected as one of the partners with the World Food Program (WFP) to begin food distribution in Swat.

I’ve also been speaking non-stop on the phone from 9 a.m. till 9 p.m. with various TV networks and journalists from around the world to report on the situation in Swat. A CNN team was supposed to arrive today but was held back due to bad weather conditions. As we say in Paksitan InshAllah (God willing), the international community will fulfill its obligations for the relief of the flood-affected people in time.”