IRC started work almost immediately after the water hit Khairpur and surrounding villages of Dadu and Sukkur regions. The most urgent priority was to feed the thousands of people who have left their homes and all possessions and to address their sanitary and medical needs. Now that the immediate relief requirements are over, and some people have started to return, IRC is assisting in enhancing their skills, rebuilding their washed away homes, and creating sources for livelihoods. 

The devastation has affected the education of children in these areas. Many of IRC’s own schools have been either damaged or destroyed. Some towns have received evacuation orders and the schools have been declared temporarily non functional.  A few of IRC’s own schools have been damaged and we are actively engaged in assessing the extent of damage and raising resources to rebuild these. 
Water has started to recede in many places, but hundreds of villages around Dadu and Sehwan are still under water.  Refugees continue to pour in and IRC continues to assist stranded families along the bunds as well as those registered in shelters set up by the district governments.  Along the road to Hyderabad, IRC has provided temporary shelters, food and water to over a 100 families.
While the need for relief is still present IRC is moving towards an early recovery strategy to assist people as they return to their homes.  IRC has opened several schools for hundreds of children, many of whom have never been inside a school before. A skills needs assessment has been conducted to identify training needs both for men and women while they are staying in camps.

According to an estimate, about half the population of Dadu has been affected.  The major issue that the flood has created is the extensive damage to road links. Dadu, Johi, KN Shah and other towns and villages cannot be accessed except by boat.  Still water is flowing or is stagnant in almost all villages and towns of district Dadu. Crops have been destroyed and since the soil has been so affected that the wheat crop cannot be sowed even for the next summer season. 
  
IRC teams have registered thousands of IDP families for food ration support, and distributed Aqua tabs. The people on bunds have no option other than to drink flood water so Aqua tabs are the only solution for those who posses jerry cans.  IRC has distributed hygiene kits among IDP families and installed temporary latrines.  Over 12,000 water purification tablets and hundreds of cans for storage of drinking water have been distributed.  Regular sessions are being conducted with the refugees on hygiene and preventive health measures. 

A Tent City with 270 registered families (total 2073 individuals) mainly from Mehar and KN Shah was set up in Dadu in early September and will continue to function until end November. The city has clean accommodation and includes space for washing, cooking, schools and community activities. Two schools are functioning and one vocational centre for women and one skills centre for men are at the planning stage. The Iranian Red Cross has provided 60 tents and have set up a medical centre. The Centre functions from 8 in the morning to 2 p.m. every day. A doctor, a midwife and other staff along with medicines are available in the centre. With their support, food ration packs for one month were distributed among all 270 families in the tent city. Child friendly spaces have also been set up. The Aga Khan Hospital has also opened a medical centre which remains open until 6 pm, and where a referral system is functioning. Every week, a specialist visits Dadu to provide diagnostics and treatment to patients.

In Sehwan, IRC has adopted a relief camp with over 650 families (around 4100 individuals) where food, medical services, sanitation and education for children are provided. Regular hygiene sessions are held. A total of 17 schools, with 1544 children are managed by IRC within various relief camps of Sehwan, included those run by the army.  Overall 2217 hygiene kits were provided with support of Concern Worldwide to date.

The situation at Jamshoro is slowly returning to normal, water has receded and people are busy in repair of their houses and villages. IRC provided relief services in six villages i.e. Amri, Sann, W. Chachar, Alam Chchar, Hyder Rind and Khnot. Raw food was provided to 890 families. Forty families from the village of Amri have been rescued, a camp school was established for children, eight tents had been provided to minority families along with rations for a month. Water coolers were distributed among 40 families and one medical camp which benefited 566 patients was arranged in Sann town.

The IRC Tent City, which housed IDPS mainly from Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Jafarabad, Dadu and Kandhkot is being disbanded as all the families, are returning to their villages, having being asked by their landlords to start preparing the soil for the next season of crops. By profession the affectees are either unskilled labourers or landless farmers except a very few who claim to have their own small pieces of land.
The Tent City started on August 28, and will end on the 22nd of October. IRC will organize a sufi musical night on October 21stt and on the 22nd we will give them parting gifts of basic household items, essential agricultural and construction tools, and winter bedding.
During these two months 17 safe deliveries, all in city hospital took place, 159 children attended three schools, several medical camps were organized, many health and hygiene sessions including reproductive health were conducted, children and youth had sports items to play with, every night one driver with a vehicle was on duty for emergencies, two camp managers (one male and one female) were available in the camp till late in the night, at least 8 IRC senior and middle managers were visiting Tent City and taking important decisions. The IRC Crafts Centre trained women in vocational skills and provided them cash for work opportunities. Apart from many individuals including families and friends, the District Government, Red Crescent, World Vision, and German Consulate had been very helpful in making it possible.      
 An elderly woman Najma Bibi of Shikarpur said ‘we cannot forget the love and respect that you and your team has given to us’.
A discussion with several affectees revealed that generally they are not willing to go back but their landlords want them to start rehabilitating lands; 95 % of the IDPs in this camp are landless farmers; the entire families are working on farm and in return are getting a few maunds of rice or other crops but no cash. In addition to working on farms, they work as unskilled labourers in their area; the schools in most of these villages do exist but are not functioning for a variety of reasons; health facilities are non-existent; and the most painful are the attitudes of landlords. One remark was made that ‘the new generation is much more arrogant than the older ones’.
 Rehabilitation strategies will need to include education for their children, skill training, build up of assets, and most of all family planning. IRC is preparing its rehabilitation strategy and very soon will start implementing it. This will include infrastructure rehabilitation through cash for work approach, education, skills training, and livestock and agricultural development.