Winter is moving into the areas destroyed by the earthquake in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier province and Kashmir, and the people affected by the earthquake are extremely vulnerable. The survivors are scrambling to rig up some adequate shelter against the snow in their destroyed homes. Roads everywhere are still blocked, bridges are still down over river gorges, and markets routes have been destroyed so people were not able to stock up supplies or large amounts of building materials before the snow began to block the mountain passes. Nor were people able to cut and store firewood for the winter, as they usually do at this time of year. Since most of the mud brick (katcha) houses were destroyed or lost their roofs, gas stoves, warm blankets, quilts, and warm clothing are at a premium, as many people will have to live through the harsh mountain winter under tents and tarps.

UUSC response update

UUSC has a consultant in the area and is currently processing $76,000 in grants in the following areas:

1. Geography as a marginalizing force

In the UUSC Rights in Humanitarian Crises Program, we are committed to working with the populations likely to be most disadvantaged by a disaster and those most likely to be marginalized in the relief efforts. Ironically, in the earthquake in Pakistan, the groups most marginalized in terms of relief are not marginalized because of religion, caste, or class; they are marginalized because of geography. The most isolated areas, particularly in the conflict zones, are still not receiving adequate assistance, and many communities have not received any aid.

Our consultant, Javed Malik, has several years of experience in this area and so was able to contact community groups he had worked with previously. With his advice, UUSC took the decision to prioritize assistance to isolated communities with a focus on women, particularly women-headed households. As winter moves in, getting aid to those communities that have not received assistance is now, literally, a matter of life or death. Our partners in this case are local Pakistani organizations. Since they work in the areas, they know the particulars of the populations and can assess which families are most in need. They have agreed with our focus on women, particularly women headed-households, and the projects have developed from discussions with the women in the communities about their basic needs.

Walkabout Development Solutions (WDS)
WDS trained five teams of “quake jumpers,” experienced mountaineers who went out into the mountains in search of isolated areas still in need of help. They carried in satellite phones, which they used to call in helicopters to deliver assistance when they found groups in need of aid. WDS received two donated helicopters and used those to fly in support. Over the few weeks the project has been in operation, it has been extremely successful, providing emergency assistance to 11,000 people in isolated areas. This has been key, particularly since the United Nations has been extremely short of funds for helicopter fuel and cannot afford to send out helicopters on general reconnaissance tours. WDS’s solution saves fuel and prepares the villages to accept the assistance flown in, so as to avoid chaos. The United Nations has now been convinced of the efficacy of this approach and contributed helicopters and food to expand the project.

Friends of the Neelum Valley (FONV)
This is a small grassroots organization working in villages in the Neelum Valley, which stretches right along the Line of Control between Pakistan and India in the conflict area of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. It is the poorest and most remote area in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The people in Neelum Valley traditionally stock their foodstuffs in October and November for the four months of winter, but the 14 kilometers of the access road were completely destroyed by the earthquake, so there is a shortage of food in the valley. Pack animals for carrying supplies are extremely scarce, as animal transport is at a premium.

UUSC is working through FONV to identify both the women-headed households and poorer households in the Athmuqam area that have not yet received assistance. The 170 households identified (1,190 people) have listed their most pressing needs: gas rings and cylinders, cooking utensils, warm clothing for women and children, and bedding and winterized tents or tarps. FONV will purchase these supplies in bulk and transport them by truck and community efforts. FONV will also provide school supplies for children, as people are eager for school to begin, even in tents, to provide some normalcy for the children.

Kashmir Rural Development Program
This small grassroots organization is led by local people working in the isolated mountain villages in the conflict area of Kashmir. It is similar to FONV. Local representatives have gone on foot through the mountains to find member communities that have not received any assistance. They have identified 155 families in three villages, Akber Abad, Kot Gujran, and Kot Mohri, all situated at 7,000 feet and now snowbound. These families had mudbrick (katcha) houses that were completely destroyed in the earthquake. Kashmir Rural Development Program is focusing on women and children’s needs and will purchase and transport, with community labor, supplies including gas rings and cylinders, cooking utensils, warm clothing for women and children and bedding. This kind of project solidifies community ties and builds on communities resources.

Women’s Welfare Organization
This Pakistani nongovernmental organization (NGO) epresents 360 village women committees, mostly in the areas hit by the earthquake. They are working both with their member organizations in the communities and in the internally displaced person (IDP) camps. They generally focus on the economic and social rights of women, but in the current crisis caused by the earthquake, they are focusing on women’s and families’ collective needs. Their large network of village contacts allows them to prioritize the most vulnerable in the community. They are providing warm clothes to women and children, tarps to women-headed and the most needy households, and hygiene kits to women in communities in Bagh and Muzaffarabad.

2. Helping people move beyond victimhood through trauma counseling

People have gone through great losses, and many are now in limbo, waiting for winter to pass before they can begin to rebuild homes. When people are treated only as victims, they begin to take on more and more of that identity. Many local NGOs working with the earthquake-affected inhabitants were concerned that people had no chance to talk together and work through what had happened. It is always key to look at the cultural appropriateness of trauma counseling. UUSC is supporting a project run by Pakistani psychologists training volunteers to do trauma counseling with a focus on empowerment.

Human Resources Development Network (HRDN)
Many internally displaced people (IDPs) and community members are suffering from uncertainty and depression. Many member organizations of the HRDN, a Pakistani civil society umbrella organization working on earthquake response, signaled the lack of any kind of culturally relevant trauma counseling. The HRDN began to work with Pakistani psychologists who offered to train volunteers to do trauma counseling, with an empowerment focus, in the IDP camps and in communities.

UUSC is supporting HRDN’s project on trauma counseling. HRDN finds Pakistani psychologists who train groups of 15 to 20 volunteers, mainly professionals and students, to travel to Mansehra, where HRDN is based. The volunteers then move out from Mansehra into villages and IDP camps in the Balakot area at the request of local community-based organizations and IDP leaders to do trauma counseling for two-week stints. The teams are supervised on site by a team of psychologists provide by the Karachi chapter of the Pakistan Medical Association. Each team is then replaced by a newly trained team, which works for two weeks. The response has been extremely positive, as people affected by the earthquake say this is the first time anyone has attempted to talk with them in an empowering way, recognizing that they have an identity beyond victims of the earthquake.

3. Rights in crises, information and analysis from the lens of national and local organizations

Pakistani nongovernmental organizations responded immediately to the earthquake and were often the first on the ground in villages and rural areas. Many have worked in the area and have experience with local grassroots organizations. Most international NGOs have very little experience in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, since it is a conflict zone and the government has restricted access to it for several years. International NGOs arrived on the scene and began to work without any consultation with the local and national groups. The result has been a serious lack of coordination, aggravated by the substantially larger budgets and resources of the international NGOs. Although the local and national Pakistani organizations have an excellent understanding of the situation, such as where help is needed, what the priorities are for assistance, and where aid is most needed, they have had almost no possibility of influencing the decisions made by the large international NGOs, the United Nations, or the Pakistani government. Upon the advice of our consultant, UUSC is supporting two leading Pakistan organizations to help Pakistani organizations bridge the information, analysis, and consultation gap between the local organizations and the international NGOs, the United Nations, and the government.

Human Resource Development Network and AWAZ Foundation
UUSC is funding an information and coordination project through which the Pakistani organizations can pool their information, set up a website to provide centralized information, and work together to develop and present the local community perspective for a holistic relief effort. This is an important way in which local community groups can hold large international NGOs and the government accountable for the progress of the relief effort. NGO leaders from Islamabad will rotate in and out of the center, working with the Pakistani organizations and local staff to bridge the information and analysis gap, coordinate Pakistani NGO analysis and response, and help them become active participants with the international NGOs and the bilateral organizations. They will help the Pakistani organizations develop common guidelines for a holistic relief approach. The center will also focus on building awareness about rights in the relief response and develop advocacy strategies for the Pakistani NGOs around earthquake relief and rebuilding.

India-administered Kashmir
UUSC will work with one of our partners from our tsunami work, the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute, to help communities affected by the earthquake on the Indian side of the Line of Control in Kashmir.