wfn.org | CWS: Too Many Unaccompanied Children Arriving At Pakistan

["Lesley Crosson" <lcrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

NEWS UPDATE

'TOO MANY UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN ARRIVING' AT NEW TENT VILLAGE
FOR QUAKE SURVIVORS, REPORTS CHURCH WORLD SERVICE

Governments Ratchet Up Support, But Still Not Enough, Not Quick Enough,
Say Aid Agencies - Still Dire Need for Tents, More Helicopters

Army Helps Church World Service Teams Drop Aid to Inaccessible Allai-Battagram

BISYAN, PAKISTAN - Fri Oct 28- In the tent village established in Bisyan,
humanitarian agency Church World Service aid workers say they are noticing
a sad trend: an increasing number of those now showing up to take
residency in the camp are children with no elders to support them.

Church World Service (CWS) reports it is now expanding the tent village to
provide shelter and medical services for 2,450 of the quake's most
vulnerable survivors. The Church of Pakistan will provide medical services
within the camp.

The emergency shelter village is part of accelerated efforts by CWS, other
aid agencies, the Pakistani government, the United Nations, U.S. and other
world bodies, now racing against time to rescue and bring aid to some
800,000 people still homeless before winter's killing onslaught in
descends in the next couple of weeks in the remote Himalayan area.

But the troubling evidence of children orphaned by the disaster or
separated from their families is evoking concerns for a haunted, traumatized generation. And lack of skilled emergency medical and surgical expertise
is causing another layer of trauma.

'Everywhere, the children's eyes are breaking our hearts'

CWS's Parvez says, "Everywhere, the children's eyes are breaking our
hearts. Most have lost at least a father or a mother," he says. "There is
no clear figure as to how many children are displaced.

"We are receiving reports," he said, "that the limbs of quake-affected
children are being amputated at the Pakistan Institute of Medical
Sciences, Polyclinic and other hospitals because of lack of plastic
surgery experts."

"According to experts," he said,  "many quake-affected children in
Pakistan are suffering from mental disorders and physical disabilities
owing to lack of psychiatrists and plastic surgery experts in the
country."

In addition to emergency relief, CWS is already beginning to put pieces in
place to provide psychosocial services for quake survivors, especially the
children, and the agency's long-term response will include shelter
construction materials.

Accelerated action still not enough, not quick enough; 455,000 tents
needed now

But accelerated relief efforts by all in the region, and Wednesday's
United Nations donors' conference at which the UN announced its expanded
appeal for $550 million for the South Asia quake disaster, are still not
enough and not fast enough, say aid agencies.

In fact, today the United Nations warns that it is running out of money
and will be forced to ground its helicopters now delivering relief
supplies, unless donors quickly provide the funding they have pledged to
the UN appeal.

100 multi-national source helicopters are now operating in the region,
dropping emergency supplies and airlifting injured survivors to the
nearest medical facilities. Yesterday (Thurs Oct 27) the U.S. and NATO
agreed to provide more helicopters to accelerate rescue sorties and air
drops of supplies,

Yet more are being called for, and the cry continues for more-many
more-immediate tents. Church World Service is calling for national
governments to release tents from warehouses throughout South Asia.

"455,726 tents are needed," says Church World Service Regional Director in
Pakistan Marvin Parvez. "So far, 62,075 tents have been delivered."

Call for government, agency collaboration on tent distribution

>From the U.S., Church World Service Director of Emergency Response
Programs Donna Derr says, "We are hearing deep concerns from the region
over the Pakistan government's ban on suppliers supplying tents to anyone
but the government.

"We know that Pakistan's primary concern is for the welfare of its most
vulnerable," Derr says, "so we are all making a plea for greater cooperation and coordination between the government and the NGOs on this matter, to
avoid any impedance in getting tents to those who desperately need them."

Due to impassable roadways from the quake's destruction, there are still
480 villages that are still inaccessible in Battagram, Mansehra, Shangla,
Kohistan, and Abbotabad," said CWS's Parvez. In less than three weeks
winter's bitter snowfalls will cut off roads already impassable from the
earthquake.

As participants in UN cluster meetings that are orchestrating emergency
response logistics on the ground, the Church World Service team reports
that the Pakistan government is considering mass evacuation of the areas
of Allai and Battagram.

Pakistan army aiding CWS in airlift of supplies to un-reached Allai-Battagram

"With help from the Pakistan Army, we have been airlifting relief goods to
survivors in Allai-Battagram, one of the areas still not reachable by
road," says Parvez.

In the North West Frontier Province, Parvez says CWS and its partners have
so far distributed 3,185 shelter kits to shelter 22,295 individuals and
food packages for almost 18,000 individuals.

Church World Service and its partner agencies who are members of Action by
Churches Together (ACT) have been the largest donor of shelter and food
packages in the area, says Pakistan Army Lt. Col. Ahmed Zakeer.

As chair of the Pak-Humanitarian Forum (PHF), Church World Service reports
that in an emergency meeting this week, forum member NGOs discussed action
plans to handle such priorities as: improving capacity at the airport in
Islamabad to process aid shipments; the need to bring women physicians
into the region- who would be guaranteed safety and security- particularly
to care for pregnant women affected by the quake; and special attention to
the needs of women and unaccompanied children

Sparked by Pakistan's immediate needs, Director of the Microsoft Humanitarian Disaster Management David Roberts visited the country this week to
offer technological assistance in helping set up a data management system
deemed crucial for future community-level disaster planning and preparedness. Data gleaned from the current earthquake disaster will be stored as
baseline information in the system, which Microsoft sees as part of a
long-term partnership with Pakistan.

Sources: United Nations, regional authorities

EDITORS' NOTE: Please include in your listings of responding agencies:

Contributions to support earthquake survivors may be sent to:
Church World Service
Southern Asia Earthquake--#6979
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515
Contributions may also be made online, or by calling 800.297.1516, ext.
222.

Media Contacts: Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, (212) 870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin - 24/7- (781) 925 1526; jdragin@gis.net

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