FROM THE EX.DIRECTORS DESK

Dear Friends, Well-wishers and Supporters of IRC!

Updates on Flood Response 2011,

Thanks for your support to Indus Resource Centre for helping flood affected communities of District Khairpur Mirs, Tando Allahyar and Mirpurkhas. It is my pleasure to let you all know that IRC as usual is conducting three types of relief activities in Mirpurkhas: 1) being carried out under funding agreements with donors, 2) jointly being done by IRC and District Governments, and 3) totally funded by IRC through the resources provided by you. 

1) Up till now, IRC has signed three donor agreements – two with UNICEF to set up 200 Temporary Learning Centres (TLCs) for children and one to develop 50 Protection PLACES for vulnerable women and children, and the third one with ARC to provide 800 shelters and hygiene kits for 800 families.

IRC has completed TLCs target – 50 in Khaipur, 100 in Mirpurkhas and 50 in Tando Allahyar District where 9464 children are registered and basic teaching process goes on for five hours every day. The teachers have also been hired from the displaced population wherever possible. The team of social mobilisers is looking after the TLCs. UNICEF has provided tents, mats, black boards, basic stationery, staff and stipend for teachers but there are no books and copies and pencils are insufficient.

I visited four centres on Friday in Mirpurkhas and felt that we will miss this opportunity to make these children at least literate if we do not provide them basic Sindhi readers. According to our calculations we need Rs 130 per child if we provide them two Sindhi books (basic and class I) and a set of copy and pencils.  The process of setting up 50 PLACES and distribution of 800 shelters has also initiated.     

2) IRC has distributed 2384 Tents and Food bags on behalf of the district government, provided 47000 Aqua tabs for water purification and installed 50 temporary latrines in Khairpur. Similarly, in Dadu it has distributed food and shelter to 601 families of two UCs of Johi.

3) I would like to let you know that till now we have collected Rs 2.5 million from friends and family. In the initial period, we spent money in Khairpur and Dadu on relief work but now our focus is only on Mirpurkhas District. As you may notice, none of the agreements mentioned above are addressing the prime needs of food, Water and sanitation. So the money collected from you has been spent in Mirpurkhas on the following items:
           

• 100 temporary latrines were installed and 100 (little better ones) are in the process of  being installed as families were sitting on both sides of the road. On the very first day when our team visited the area, the women demanded latrines.
• 300 shelter sheets were immediately purchased from Hyderabad and distributed to those who had absolutely nothing that could save them from rains and sun.
• 700 jerry cans and thousands of aqua tabs were distributed for cleaning drinking water.
• 460 families were given essential food items that could be sufficient for them for ten days.
• 83 tents (donated by Shahbaz Group) were distributed among shelter less families (60 of them are now in our tent city)
• 1000 mosquito nets have been ordered but not yet received.

Apart from this, an interesting development is the establishment of our tent city near Shahi Water (beyond Jamrao Canal crossing) on Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas Highway. I visited the tent city two days ago and spent some time in the school and with families. Altogether there are 60 families and all of them are Kohlis and Bheels from Hindu community. They demanded a temple as they have lost all ‘moortis’ and pictures in the floods.

We distributed them ration yesterday for about one week. The bag included 15 kg atta, 5 kg rice, 3 kg of Daals, 3 litres of oil, 3 kg sugar, salt, chillies, match box, tea, 2 kg potatoes and 2 kg onions. This cost us almost Rs 2500 per bag including the transportation. We will have to distribute similar quantities so we will need Rs 150,000 every week only to meet this requirement. Now we are buying everything from Mirpurkhas to save on transportation cost and to provide support to the local economy. We sent them two ‘moortis’ of Ganesh ji and Hanoman ji and three pictures relevant for Rama Pir Mandar from Karachi yesterday. A volley ball and balls have also been given to the youth.         

Food assistance is the urgent need of people in flood affected areas. According to the recent Joint Rapid Assessment by UN, three million people are currently in need of immediate food assistance. According to the same report, over two million acres of standing crops were destroyed, including cotton, rice, sugar cane, sorghum, vegetables and pulses. The Joint Rapid Assessment estimated that over one-third of livestock have been killed or sold and five million directly affected.

In the beginning we took some time in organizing ourselves as we had never worked in Mirpurkhas before. But now we have an office, two warehouses with all the necessary staff provided by donors so now it is easy for us to add on other activities. Moreover we have developed relationship with communities around our 150 TLCs so any distribution to them will become easy if we have resources. Very soon the nights will become cool and we will have to think about winter items as well.

We are grateful to you for helping us to help others. I will appreciate, if you forward our appeal for donations to your own circles. Our contact details are as under: 

Title A/C:                      Indus Resource Centre 
                                    Habib Bank LTD
US$ A/c# :                   00120250022610
PKR A/C#:                    00120001651403B
SWIFTCODE #:             HABBPKKA
Branch Code #:            0012
Address:                       ZamZama Branch,   D.H.A Phase V, Karachi

Our office address is:
D-42, Block 1, Clifton, Near Ziauddin Hospital, Karach. 021-35838690i

Thanks for your cooperation,

Sadiqa salahuddin
Indus Resource Centre
www.irc-pakistan.com

Table I: Protective Learning and Community Emergency Services (PLACES) established in collaboration with Education Department and UNICEF in District Mirpurkhas.

Table II: Protective Learning and Community Emergency Services (PLACES) established in collaboration with Education Department and UNICEF in District Tando Allahyar

Table III: Protective Learning and Community Emergency Services (PLACES) established in collaboration with Education Department and UNICEF in District Khairpur

Table IV: Damage Assessment Survey

Table V: Food Package Distribution Details