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Pulse Report August 10, 2010

Some of the destruction around the city of Charsadda.

HISG Responds to Terrible Floods in Pakistan

PAKISTAN- HISG is responding to a series of floods in Pakistan that are far more devastating than anyone originally anticipated. The floods have completely wiped out millions of homes, and directly affected 13 million people. Many of these victims have no shelter, no food and surrounded by polluted, stagnant water. A spokesman with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has stated that "This disaster is worse than the tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the Haiti earthquake." Unfortunately, there seems to be very little international response to this crisis, and the government is overwhelmed. Very few of the affected communities have received any kind of aid, leaving millions of families homeless and helpless, with more rain on the way.

HISG Responds

HISG is working alongside international organizations and local Pakistani agencies within the International Disaster Response Network (IDRN) to provide urgent relief for the flood victims. HISG is focusing our efforts on an area called Charsadda, helping bring medical teams, water filters, and supplies into the community. Cholera is spreading quickly through the population, especially among children, as families get their water from contaminated sources. Water filters and medical supplies are desperately needed to curb the rapid spread of cholera and other water borne illnesses. HISG is connecting resources to meet these needs. You can listen to one of HISG's disaster response coordinators discuss the situation in an interview online here. We will also be posting updates on HISG.org.

How You Can Help:

HISG has already prepared a shipment of 100,000 shoes for some of the families who have lost everything, and we are quickly compiling more medical supplies and water purification systems to ship to Pakistan. More specific information about those opportunities will be coming later this week. Currently, there is a link on HISG.org where you can designate your contribution specifically for the people of Pakistan. This is an opportunity for you to make a difference to a hurting population that is facing "the greatest humanitarian crisis in human history."

HISG Operations

Surveying the damage in Charsadda Once again, HISG is privileged to be working with our partners from the International Disaster Response Network. HISG has provided training to many organizations in the IDRN, so that when this kind of disaster strikes, the existing relationships can quickly become working partnerships. In fact, the IDRN's most recent full-scale disaster exercise was based on an event in Pakistan. That exercise gave IDRN partners a chance to address some of the challenges related to Central Asia, and introduced the key local contacts in Pakistan. The IDRN gives individual organizations the flexibility to respond quickly, as we did last week when no one was fully aware of the extent of this crisis; but also leverages significant strengths and capabilities, which will be needed in the coming weeks as more and more communities need help.