wfn.org | CHURCH WORLD SERVICE EXPANDS RELIEF EFFORTS IN SPITE OF

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

CHURCH WORLD SERVICE EXPANDS RELIEF EFFORTS IN SPITE OF WEATHER

NEW YORK / ISLAMABAD * Oct 17-Church World Service (CWS) is expanding its 
relief efforts to reach survivors of the October 8 earthquake but is 
hampered by adverse weather and security conditions.

CWS truckloads of material continue to arrive in Mansehra on a daily basis, 
but weather conditions hampered relief efforts for a second day on 
Saturday. Staff carried out a needs assessment for emergency water and 
sanitation at Ayub Medical Hospital-Abbotabad on Saturday morning. Bad 
weather forced the team to abandon its assessment visits to Battagram and 
Balakot,.

On October 13 (Thursday), CWS began to air drop shelter kits from army 
helicopters to some of the most affected and difficult to reach areas in 
Battagram, including 365 kits in Allai village. Using army helicopters has 
allowed CWS to carry out rapid distributions not only in inaccessible areas 
but has also prevented goods from being looted.

Because of the deteriorating security situation, CWS was not able to resume 
the air delivery of shelter kits the following morning (Friday, October 
14), and heavy rains and hailstorms prevented the air delivery of shelter 
kits on Saturday.

The Pakistan meteorological office was forecasting more thunderstorms and 
hail in the coming days, which could further delay relief efforts and put 
survivors at greater risk.

CWS reported that the army has been extremely cooperative so far in the 
air-drop operation, and that currently the needs-assessment team is 
negotiating the delivery of more shelter kits to hard-to-reach areas. CWS 
said the army was very pleased to see the swift response of CWS and that 
the brigadier in charge there said that CWS has brought in the largest 
consignment of shelter kits so far. However, CWS also reported problems in 
obtaining enough shelter kits and trucks for transportation to meet the 
high demand.

To meet some of the demand, a flight with the first 40 to 45 metric tons of 
tents was expected to leave Oslo on Sunday, and the remainder of the 
85-metric-ton shipment will arrive in Pakistan this week.

Over the weekend, Pakistan's government announced the latest death toll 
with a figure that had been revised sharply upward. In addition to rain and 
hail, snow has begun to fall in some parts of Kashmir. The arrival of 
harsher winter conditions makes reaching the earthquake survivors all the 
more crucial. With as many as 2.5 million people homeless, reports from the 
affected areas say that survivors' most critical needs are not food and 
clothing, but shelter and medical assistance, as many hospitals were 
destroyed in the earthquake as well.

Pakistan's disaster-response chief said that the authorities would not be 
able to provide shelter before the winter to many of the homeless 
survivors. Major General Farooq Javed told a news conference in Islamabad 
there were dire shortages of blankets and tents, but plans were underway to 
import two million blankets and 100,000 large tents.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: Please include in your listings of responding agencies:
Contributions to support these efforts may be sent to:
Church World Service
Southern Asia Earthquake--#6979
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515
Contributions may also be made online at http://churchworldservice.org/, or 
by calling 800.297.1516, ext. 222.

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CONTACTS:

Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net
Lesley Crosson, (212) 870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org