Food Supplies Run Low For Families In Pakistan

Food Supplies Run Low For Families And Children In Flood-Affected Pakistan

August 5, 2010 – Save the Children reports more than half of the families it is helping had no remaining food supply.

Of the 80 communities surveyed by Save the Children in the flood-affected Swat region the past two days, half are unable to access health services; 45 percent are drinking contaminated water from rivers, ponds and lakes; and 42 percent do not have any water containers.

‘One in two families has no food left, and almost half of the communities do not have access to clean drinking water,’ says Annie Foster, Save the Children’s associate vice president for humanitarian response.

‘Parents told us they had no other option than to have their children drink water contaminated by dirt and mud from the rivers, ponds and lakes. There is no other water available. And, even if they had access to a clean water source, they have no containers to collect and store it in.’

Save the Children has distributed shelter kits that include a plastic tarpaulin, a bucket with lid, two jerry cans, one plastic jug, six plastic glasses and one ten-metre rope to families in Union Council Fatchpur in Swat.

Save the Children New Zealand has launched an urgent $100,000 appeal to help the affected children and families in Pakistan sending an immediate $20,000 to Pakistan for emergency relief including the shelter kits that cost $117.30 (NZD).

Donations equate immediate emergency relief (NZD):

• $12.50 could buy a gas cylinder and burner for cooking
• $15.20 could buy a floor mat
• $7.60 could buy a nine litre metal cooking pot with a lid
• $4.80 could buy a stainless steel kettle with a lid
• $13.10 could buy a 16-litre plastic water cooler

New Zealanders can make donations at www.savethechildren.org.nz or by calling 0800 167 168.

ENDS

© Scoop Media