CHITRAL: A facility home has been inaugurated in Garam Chashma area of Lot Koh valley to provide humanitarian support to the people affected by natural disasters.

The humanitarian response facility (HRF) was constructed by ACTED, a French NGO, with the financial assistance of the UK government through DFID.

Lower Chitral deputy commissioner Naveed Ahmed inaugurated the facility during a ceremony the other day.

On the occasion, he said the facility would help the people in distress when the area was cut off from rest of the district during natural disasters.

He said due to the peculiar topography of Chitral it needed especially-designed disaster risk reduction apparatus for which the government and the NGOs were in a good working relationship. He stressed on the community members to familiarise themselves with the apparatus in the facility home, saying youth should come forward to demonstrate the spirit of volunteerism.

Earlier, ACTED project manager Kamran Zeb told the gathering that after identifying the union councils of Garam Chashma, Kalash valleys and Mastuj as highly vulnerable to disasters it was decided to put in place one such facility in each area equipped with emergency response tool kits with the objective of enhancing the effective response capability.

“Supporting disaster-prone populations is a priority for ACTED and we are committed to extending our projects to remote and not easily-accessible areas,” he said.

He expressed his gratitude to the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for providing land for the buildings and the UK government for funding the project.

He said the facility would benefit as many as 78,501 individuals in 11,000 households in the three union councils.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2020