ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: The UNICEF on Thursday started delivering the first batch of over 50,000 warm clothing kits to children affected by the Oct 8 earthquake. The warm clothing kits, specially packed in four sizes, each containing a padded jacket, a hat or shawl, socks and snow boots, were delivered to the children in high altitude villages and tented camps.
According to a statement issued here on Thursday, over 100,000 more kits with a unit cost of $20 each were on the way. UNICEF representative Omar Abdi said, “the needs of the affected populations are huge and urgent and nothing is more urgent than children’s health and well-being, since they are extremely vulnerable at times like these.”
The statement says that deliveries to the most remote locations had been prioritised so that the items arrived before the roads were completely blocked by snowfall. They were being distributed by partner NGOs such as the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP). In the last few days NRSP had been targeting the hill villages set above 7,000 feet on the steep slopes of the Jehlum River in Azad Kashmir.
In Sudhan gali, 7,500 feet in Bagh district, 14,500 kits had been handed over during the last three days. Another 5,400 kits were being distributed in another high area called Topi. The statement said that children in these areas could be seen wearing their new clothes and brightly coloured boots.
In the tented villages in Azad Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where some 170,000 people became homeless, UNICEF was distributing kits to help them with their hygiene needs. These were designed to decrease the risk of communicable disease resulting from inadequate sanitation and crowded conditions. Women volunteers were distributing items containing toothpaste, towels, soap and sanitary products etc to the women folk in tents.
The statement said the combined price tag for these deliveries of warm clothing and hygiene kits was nearly $5 million. For the key sectors of shelter, water and sanitation, health and education, UNICEF is being supplied relief goods worth $28 million to the survivors. To date UNICEF had received $61 million or 66 per cent of the amount requested under the UN appeal, it added.
OUR STAFF REPORTER ADDS: In a meeting of the Disaster Management Committee, held here on Thursday, it was said that twenty-two ambulances donated by UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA were distributed by the ministry of health to hospitals and medical camps in the quake-hit areas of NWFP and Azad Kashmir.
Seven ambulances have been provided to tehsil hospitals, medical camps and CMH hospital in Muzaffarabad, while two each have been provided to Poonch and Bagh districts of AJK.
In the NWFP, six ambulances have been provided to Mansehra, followed by two each to Batagram and Shangla, and one to DHQ hospital, Dassu.
The meeting expressed satisfaction at the measures in place to monitor and check the spread of disease in the quake-hit areas.
Syed Anwar Mahmood, secretary health, who chaired the meeting, said it was a matter of satisfaction that a strong and reliable disease surveillance system continues to keep an eye on the disease pattern in the affected areas. He said so far there was zero reporting of acute watery diarrhoea, diphtheria, measles, tetanus and acute respiratory infections.
The meeting was informed that around 3,120 lady health workers continued to provide medical relief services in the relied camps established in NWFP and AJK.
Earlier, a meeting of the National Task Force on Psychological Services and Trauma Counsellings was told that the ministry of health with the assistance of WHO has deployed more then 32 mental health teams for psychological rehabilitation of the quake victims.
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