July 18, 2007	Wednesday	Rajab 02, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 17: Humanitarian assistance, under the USAID- funded $390,000 emergency relief initiative, is underway to the people affected by Cyclone Yemyin that hit Balochistan and Sindh earlier this month.

Funded by the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and the US Ambassador’s Emergency Fund, emergency kits are being provided by an international NGO, Mercy Corps, to over 11,000 households in the Bolan, Lasbela, Jhal Magsi, Jaffarabad and Naseerabad districts of Balochistan, a USAID news release issued here on Monday said.

More than 3,470 family kits, containing food and non-food items were distributed in Balochistan. An estimated 7,530 more kits will be distributed this week.

This is, in many cases, the first assistance some remote communities have seen, said Dee Goluba, Operations Manager of Mercy Corps’ global response team.

Family kits were designed with suggestions from the affected families in Balochistan. Each kit is valued at approximately $30 (Rs1,800 approx) and includes basic supplies such as rice, oil, daal, salt, spices, gram, gur, sugar, medicines, and water. The kits also contain basic hygiene items, such as soap.

Meanwhile, relief workers have noted that hundreds of communities were still living on the roadsides and in public spaces on higher ground.

In some cases, quick surveys have shown that some communities have lost over 80 per cent of their livestock and crops to the flooding.

They will need to rebuild their livelihoods from scratch, most probably by borrowing money and thus incurring debt, said Goluba.