FPHC Begins Reconstruction in Flood Areas

Sorry for the delay in communicating with you. We have been really overburdened and it continues. even now. The staff is working longer hours than routine, even the office staff..

Because our geographical area is prone to emergencies and we have needed to respond quickly in the past to earthquakes, floods and massive IDP migration, this past January, we opened a special bank account to create an emergency response fund. This also has helped us to track the emergency funds we received better. We had a small amount in this account when the floods hit that allowed us to jump right into relief services at the end of July, 2010 when the floods hit.

The need for medicine and supplies, even at the beginning, however was very big as whole families and communities had run from their flooded homes with only the clothes on their back. So we were very glad that you were able to raise and send funds to us so quickly.

Our early and effective emergency response was acknowledged by the government authorities, who put us on their official list. This helped as we then received some local donations from philanthropists and organizations. International groups such as UNICEF, WHO and UNHCR also came forward to assist us with supplies. In addition, we had realized some unspent funding in ongoing projects in the tribal areas and got approval from UNICEF for utilization of those savings in flood affected areas.

Along with the donations sent by Society of Rural Physicians of Canada, Hillman Medical Education Fund and Rose Charities we have been able to continue actively in our work since the floods began.

Recently we have been chosen by UNHCR for an emergency grant to set up two static health care centres in government health facilities in Nowshera and Charsadda districts for the flood-affected people. Each of the static centers supports six mobile teams. The static centre consists of 1 LHV, 1 MCH Assistant and 1 Male Social Mobiliser. Each of the six mobile teams supporting the static centre consists of 2 Medical Doctors, 1 Medical Technician, 1 Laboratory Technician, 2 LHVs, 2 MCH Assistants, 2 EPI Technicians and support staff. So this totals more than 50 additional staff members as well as the necessary medical and non-medical equipment, rented vehicles and medicine. As part of this UNHCR project we are also rehabilitating 12 health facilities, including several FPHC centers, that have been affected by the heavy rains and floods.

We expect to hear shortly from UNICEF regarding a possible six month Nutrition Project for flood affected people that is planned to start middle of October. Under this project FPHC will be providing Nutrition Services (specifically provision of ready to use micronutrients and nutritional information) to women and children in at least 10 Union Councils . A Union Council is an administrative unit like a big village.

In recognition of our activities, FPHC is now an established part of the the Nutrition Cluster at Country level and coordinate regularly with UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and National Disaster Management Authorities. Thank you to all our generous donors for helping not only flood-affected people here in Pakistan but also for assisting Frontier Primary Health Care to build capacity in responding to these humanitarian emergencies.

from Dr. Emel Khan and FPHC.

Photos: Flood relief 2010