Save The Children - Save the Children battles the elements to reach earthquake-hit villages

Save the Children is racing to reach children in some of the remotest villages affected by the earthquake in Pakistan.

A distribution of emergency relief

Rosie Jackson, emergency logistics, is in the isolated Panjkot valley in Northern Pakistan. She said: “Some of the villages we distributed shelter to last week are already covered in snow. It is absolutely freezing up here and we are battling against the elements. The road to Panjkot did reopen but is now closed again because of landslides. There have been no helicopters for three days because of the conditions.”

Save the Children is the only aid agency distributing shelter in the Panjkot area. It has already provided shelter, blankets, kitchen sets, and stoves to almost 1,000 families in Panjkot, we plan to reach all 2,500 families in the area by Christmas.

Director of Emergencies, Toby Porter, is currently in Islamabad. He said: "The rain and snow that has been forecast for weeks arrived in force today. It doesn’t bear thinking about what this will do to conditions up in the mountains".

“As the temperature drops and the weather worsens our job gets harder and it is more difficult to reach remote villages. We always knew we had a small window before the snow came. It will bring new challenges, but we will face them head on.”

The 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck South Asia on 8 October, caused a death toll of over 73,000, with 79,000 people wounded.

A second wave of death from disease and exposure could kill thousands more unless more help arrives soon.

The earthquake’s impact area was 30,000 square kilometres, destroying or rendering uninhabitable the majority of homes in the region. More than 3 million people have been made homeless. In many cases, entire villages have been levelled.

Up to 30 percent of earthquake-affected areas are inaccessible due to the mountainous terrain and coming winter weather. This could mean that at least 200,000 people are without relief assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The international community must deliver on commitments of aid to ensure enough relief can reach affected communities before winter.

Save the Children is working in a variety of ways to help those affected by the disaster. The goal is to make real and lasting change in the lives of 40,000 children and their families in the affected areas.

Relief
Save the Children is responding to clear and urgent needs for shelter and blankets for protection from the weather, and providing stoves and kitchen equipment.

We began distributions in Muzzafarabad, providing tents, tarpaulins and blankets to provide protection from the weather, and high-energy biscuits to supplement food. We are now working with local partners to distribute kits for constructing temporary shelters. But some areas such as Panjkot have still not been covered by the relief effort. We will focus there on distribution of tools, nails and plastic sheeting to construct temporary shelters for up to 7,500 families, and provide them with blankets and stoves.

Teams are also on the ground in Bagh where we have distributed tents, children’s blankets and kitchen sets to over 1,000 families. We plan to reach up to 7,500 families in this area but as Joseph Ashmore, Save the Children’s shelter expert says, the task is becoming increasingly difficult: “Many of the lower areas have now been covered but there is an urgent need to reach people in the higher, more remote villages before the snow comes”. Save the Children will now be focusing its efforts in these areas, registering the most vulnerable families and distributing relief as quickly as possible.

There are still major obstacles to overcome. Gareth Owen, Deputy Director of Emergencies, recently visited the affected areas: “We are up against four things here. The clock, climate, the terrain and a lack of funding. It’s a major challenge but we are definitely up for it. We just need to get things moving on the ground as quickly as possible. We’ll be measured by our response, not just over the next few weeks, but also in the coming months”.

Education/Safe play The survivors face a struggle to deal with the physical and emotional trauma of this disaster. Save the Children is working to meet physical needs of children with emergency supplies but we are also working to ensure their safety and address their emotional well-being.

To aid their recovery it is important that children get back to as normal a routine as possible. When children are given the space to play with their peers and restart their education they are better able to begin their emotional recovery.

Chris Bowley, Emergency Team Leader in Muzaffarabad, “Thousands of children were killed in their schools during the earthquake and so were many of the teachers and local education staff. There is a desperate need to reactivate the education system for the survivors otherwise there will be a major gap in the children’s education which could take years to catch up”.

Save the Children has started clearing collapsed schools and constructing temporary buildings in the Muzaffarabad area. The first school now has a basic structure and we are in a position to expand this project to clear and construct up to 100 temporary schools in the Muzaffarabad and Bagh.

We have also provided large tents to use as safe play areas, which allow parents to leave their children in a safe environment whilst they get on with the enormous challenge of rebuilding their lives. We have set up seven safe play areas in camps in Muzaffarabad so far and provided each of these with boxes of toys, books and games and funding for trained supervisors. We plan to scale up the play areas by at least one a day and are assessing the needs of children in other areas.

Child Protection
Children are always the most vulnerable during and after an emergency. Our child protection teams are working to ensure that vulnerable children get access to aid and that children who have lost parents are being properly cared for.

Katherine Williamson, Child Protection Manager, “In disaster situations, the social structures that care for and protect children – families, communities and welfare institutions – are shattered, leaving children vulnerable to a range of abuses and affecting their sense of security in the world. Save the Children is working with other protection actors to ensure that the needs of particularly vulnerable children – particularly those who have lost their families or become separated from them – are identified and prioritised.”

On going assessments indicate that there are fewer orphaned children than we had anticipated and those who have been orphaned are being cared for by extended family members and friends.

In Islamabad we are working with hospitals to provide activities for resocialisation with children who are being discharged and by supporting an interim care centre for the children and their carers.

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