January 11, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 10, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: Three months on, the conditions in the quake-hit areas of Azad Kashmir have gone from bad to worse. “Children and their families living in the quake-hit areas of Pakistan and India are facing even more extreme conditions after the new year brought heavy snowstorms and torrential rain to the region,” said Documentation and Communication Coordinator, Save the Children-UK, Munazza Siddiqui.

Children were now living in villages covered under a blanket of more than three-feet snow and temperatures had dropped to minus 10, Munazza Siddiqui said.

“It has been almost three months since the October 8 quake and Save the Children is continuing to battle the elements to get to the most vulnerable children despite roads being cut off and helicopter flights often cancelled due to poor visibility,” Munazza said. The Save the Children alliance has already provided thousands of quilts, blankets and other vital supplies to more than 25,000 families.

“The bad weather has made life unimaginably hard for families and children in camps and villages. It is cold and wet and treacherous road conditions are hampering the relief effort.

“We still see many children, who are not even adequately dressed, with sometimes only sandals to wear. We don’t know how they will cope with such harsh conditions. It is imperative that now, more than ever before, relief efforts are redoubled and focus on the most vulnerable,” said Pete Sykes, Emergency Programme Manager in Pakistan.

After every incident of severe weather, a team from Save the Children would go out to the areas they were working in and contact the remotest villages to make a rapid assessment of the situation and what people needed.

Munazza Siddiqui also said that after the recent heavy snow and rain, teams found that there had been many landslides and most roads around Bagh were closed.

“Dozens of tents in temporary camps had collapsed under the weight of heavy snow and in the more rural mountainous areas the problem was compounded by flooding.

The shelter kits provided by Save the Children, which included corrugated iron sheets, plastic sheeting and tools, had proved invaluable to the people building adequate shelter for their families and further insulating their tents against the elements