Pakistan floods
The relief effort in Pakistan desperately needs more funds as hundreds of thousands of children risk catching killer diseases in the aftermath of widespread flooding. Only a third of the aid target has been met. Please help us fill the gap.
Following the major floods in the southern Pakistan's Sindh province, many children and their families have been left marooned, living on roadsides or in makeshift camps, without clean drinking water or sanitation.
Meanwhile stagnant floodwaters have become breeding grounds for waterborne diseases and for mosquitoes carrying malaria.
Children at risk
- In Badin, one of the hardest-hit districts in the province, cases of malaria increased in the space of two weeks by 20 percent in children, a quarter of them under 5. Malaria can kill if not treated in time.
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In Mirpur Khas, deadly respiratory infections such as pneumonia increased by 44 percent, half of this figure are children. Pneumonia kills more children under five in Pakistan than any other disease.
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Even before this year’s flooding, one child in five here was acutely malnourished. With mothers finding it harder to feed their infants and a rise in infections, we fear that more children are at risk of becoming severely malnourished.
What we’re doing
We’ve already reached more than 620,000 people. We’re focusing our response in four of the worst-affected districts: Badin, Tharparkur, Mirpurkhas and Tando Allahyar, where we're:
- distributing shelter and household kits, including tarpaulin sheeting and cooking equipment
- providing food to last three months to 15,000 families who are most in need
- running mobile clinics, staffed by a doctor and a female health visitor, to get life-saving help to children vulnerable to water-borne diseases and other illnesses
- providing medication and therapeutic food to children, pregnant women and new mothers who we find are malnourished
- setting up safe spaces where children can play, learn and be supported, giving parents time to start to rebuild their lives
- holding public meetings to raise awareness of good health and sanitation practices, given the hazardous environment.
As well as our immediate life-saving work, we’ll support longer-term recovery. We’ll help families rebuild their lives and ensure they can get good-quality healthcare and education for their children.
Drawing on experience
Following last year's catastrophic flooding, we responded to the needs of more than 3 million people. We'll draw on this experience in our response to this year's flood.