Update: SOS Children Response to Pakistan Floods

SOS Children Emergency Relief in Pakistan:

As of today, Friday 3 September:

• Trucks containing a total of 4650 food packages (744,000 meals) have now been distributed to over a dozen different towns in the affected provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan and South Punjab
• Supplies for areas in the province of Swat that can not be reached by land have been airlifted by the Pakistan Air Force.
• A large consignment of medical supplies was delivered to the Combined Military Hospital in Lahore for further transport into two medical camps in affected areas
• A total of 1,500 tents have been delivered to Sindh, Balochistan and Swat, 500 to each province. Further deliveries will take place as soon as further tents can be purchased.
  

Food supplies scarce

The floods have damaged at least 3.2 million hectares, about 14 percent of the entire cultivated land. Up to 75,000 tonnes of stored grains have been washed away.

SOS Children has sent trucks containing food packages to heavily affected areas in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and south Punjab, respectively.

Each of the packages contains wheat flour, lentils, rice, cooking oil, sugar, tea, milk powder, salt, chilli powder, washing soap, toilet soap, candles and matches. They cost just £13 each and will feed one family of 6-8 persons for ten days.

Another 1,000 packages have already been ordered. Our target is to finance up to 100,000 packages.

More than 6 million displaced

Floodwaters are beginning to recede across most of the country, but they still pose a threat to towns in Sindh province, in the south of Pakistan. According to the UN, nearly one million people have fled their homes in the last 48 hours. SOS Children has sent 500 tents to children and their families at Shadadkot on the Balochistan/ Sindh border.

Previously, the floods had already forced about six million people from their homes. Many people from outlying areas who had taken refuge in towns of Sindh Province have now had to move again. SOS Children has already placed an order for a further 1,000 tents.

3.5 million children at risk of disease

In those areas where the flood waters have gone back, diseases are now the most imminent threat, and SOS Children is already working to ensure that children in those areas are provided with medical supplies as soon as possible.

According to the UN, 3.5 million children are at risk of malnutrition and deadly water-borne diseases caused by the lack of clean drinking water. The flood waters also create a breeding-ground for mosquitoes which carry malaria - particularly dangerous for under-fives.

The floods, triggered by unusually heavy monsoon downpours over the upper Indus basin a month ago, are Pakistan's worst ever natural disaster.

Even before the floods, Pakistan's economy was fragile, and economic growth, forecast at 4.5% this fiscal year, is now predicted at anything between zero to 3%. The official death toll from the floods, now at about 1,600, is expected to rise significantly as more bodies are found every day and many people are still missing.

Please donate to our Pakistan Flood Appeal

	Truck with supplies arrives in the area
	Support workers handing out food packages
	Children with their food packages