CWS Remains Central to Pakistan Quake Recovery Eight Months On

|PIC1|Eight months after a massive earthquake ripped through vast regions of Pakistan in October 2005, Church World Service has continued to play a key role in the reconstruction process.

Just last month a CWS team visited the earthquake response sites in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and the Northwest Frontier Province where they witnessed a growing stream of survivors returning to their damaged home sites.

"Church World Service's Pakistan staff has a hardworking and dedicated team that cuts across gender and religious lines--a much needed witness in a country like Pakistan. They deserve our support and frequent prayers," says Johnny Wray, a CWS Board member who travelled with four of the agency's colleagues to view the response projects.

According to the team’s reports, the earthquake survivors are not only returning home but they are also equipping themselves with new skills to help in the reconstruction of their own communities and livelihoods.

Response projects visited by the team included mobile health units and a basic health unit in Rawalakot, as well as livelihood training located in the earthquake's epicentre town of Balakot.

|TOP|The aim is to “build back better”, Pakistan’s Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) told the CWS group, adding that grants for reconstruction were also to be dispersed to homeowners.

There is still a long way to go in the reconstruction process, however. In Rawalakot the town’s only hospital had been completely destroyed by the earthquake leaving the community without any proper healthcare, the nearest medical centre being located a five-hour drive away in Islamabad.

Church World Service has responded to the urgent need for medical care by setting up a Basic Health Unit (BHU) or small clinic and two mobile health units which are travelling teams consisting of one doctor, two nurses and a few other related staff who make visits to isolated communities.

“The scope of health and medical needs that persists is troubling," says Church World Service Communications Director and delegation member Ann Walle. "The two mobile health unit teams and the Basic Health Unit typically see daily more than 100 patients each, mostly women and children," she said.

|AD|With the need still great among survivors, CWS recently launched a second appeal in the US to raise US$20million to fund continuing health and recovery needs in the region.

The Pakistan government is planning to relocate Balakot after half the population was killed and most of the city was destroyed.

Here, “many of the survivors of the disaster remain in tents, and numerous signs of destruction are still visible,” reports Walle.

CWS is working in the city in partnership with Dosti Pakistan to restore to the victims a sense of livelihood by training young men in masonry, welding, plumbing and carpentry.

The men will then use their new skills to not only build new homes for their families but to also assist in the ongoing reconstruction efforts.

“We're providing them a skill as tradesmen and to help their communities rebuild," said Ali Awais, administrator of the Bissian Construction Trade Training Centre. "It becomes a project not only for themselves but for their families and communities, too."

The training centres are being expanded by CWS across four severely damaged districts.

Returning from Pakistan, CWS board member Wray, who is director of Week of Compassion with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), said, "It was most impressive to see the partnerships Church World Service has forged with local partners like Dosti and also international partners like Norwegian Church Aid, with whom CWS is carrying out major water and sanitation projects.

Wray said: "We heard from local people, other partners and even a government official that Church World Service has been one of the leaders here in relief and recovery efforts.”

He added: “The agency's Pakistan country director Marvin Parvez is a courageous and dedicated leader."