Pakistan's Independence Day

Note: Sajjad is IRD's Country Director in Pakistan, overseeing the USAID-funded Emergency Water and Sanitation program in the KPK province prior to the flooding and our response to the flooding today.

Thank you to everyone who has stretched out their hand for Pakistan.

Over the weekend, August 13-15, I traveled to Muzaffargarh District in Southern Punjab.  The purpose of my visit was mainly to be with the affected people on Pakistan's Independence Day - August 14 - and to monitor the distribution of supplies.  I traveled different parts of severely affected areas of the district Muzaffargarh.  This area is badly hit by the flood.  When I arrived there, IRD and its local partner Mojaz Foundation were already distributing tents that we procured locally through a generous donation from the Church of Latter Day Saints.  We also distributed jerry cans and Aqua Water purification tablets.

During my field trip, I observed some constraints as well, including health hazards for distribution teams and security risks as time passes and frustrations are converting to outrage.

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"Villages Washed Away" - An Update from Pakistan

Note: Sajjad is IRD's Country Director in Pakistan, overseeing the USAID-funded Emergency Water and Sanitation program in the KPK province prior to the flooding. The following is a personal reflection from him following multiple assessments in the region and initial efforts to get emergency supplies to the displaced.

My country is going through a great suffering and miseries because of the sequential disasters, one after the other. In Particular the life in KPK province is almost crippled because of the Military Operations against Taliban since May 2008. 

The most recent flood has really added devastation in the region and washed away houses, properties, public infrastructure, livestock and the entire supply chain.  The recent rains started on July 22/23 affected millions of people and destroyed roads and communication network along the Indus and Kabul rives. The most affected districts are Nowshera, Peshawar, Charsadda, Swat, Shangle and Dir, DI Khan and Tank districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province -Pakistan.

The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has confirmed hundreds of deaths but though unofficial figures would be higher because many areas of the province were inundated and inaccessible due to severing of communication links, the government also conceded that the death toll could be in thousands keeping in view the severity of the floods and a large number of people are still missing. Millions of people are homeless and without livelihood, having lost their possessions.

According to official estimates 2.5 million people have been affected by the natural calamity termed the worst in the history of the province.

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IRD at the Food Aid and Development Conference

This week, I have been attending with several colleagues the International Food Aid Conference, which is co-sponsored by USDA and USAID, in Kansas City, M0. The event is expected to feature high-level staff from the two agencies, including USAID Administrator Raj Shah and the two deputy coordinators for global food security - Amb Bill Garvelink and Amb Patricia Haslach. It's always a great opportunity to meet or reconnect with other professionals in the field and discuss upcoming challenges, opportunities, and share best practices.

Along those lines, Ahmadou Danpoulo Baba, President of Imperial Foods in Douala, Cameroon and IRD partner, spoke at the conference today about his noodle production project. In collaboration with partners, USDA, IRD, U.S. Wheat and the World Institute for Soy in Hunger and Health (WISHH), Baba spoke about how he'd used the example of the IRD USDA-funded noodle projects in Indonesia and Cambodia to jump start his own effort in Cameroon. And later in the day, David Prettyman, IRD's Deputy Director of Sustainable Food and Agriculture Systems, who's known as the "noodle king" in Indonesia, talked about IRD's work in both long-term agriculture and food assistance projects, particularly in Africa (Cameroon, the Gambia, Senegal, and Guinnea-Bissau, Mozambique). He noted that Baba may now be the new heir apparent to his rule as the noodle king.

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Dealing with Disaster in the Gulf

Note: Trent is an intern from Emory University's Candler School of Theology who participated in IRD US program management this summer. The following is a personal reflection from him after he attended the summit for case management agencies in the Gulf Region on dealing with the consequences of the BP oil spill.

Earlier this month, I attended the Mississippi Gulf Coast Disaster Recovery Summit at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast. It was a gathering of NGOs, religious organizations, businesses, and community leaders to tackle the largest ecological/technological disaster this country has seen. Representatives from along the coast came to learn, express their concerns, and collaborate resources. The South Mississippi Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (SMVOAD) organized the event and you can get general information about the conference and its speakers here.

I attended the Summit as a kind of "outsider". I grew up in the Midwest and won't try to claim that I understand life on the Coast. The fishing, the ecology, and lifestyle are all foreign to me and it was difficult to fully grasp the implications of this disaster from afar. Thus, for me the Summit was about education. I learned how people's lives are tied up with the Gulf and how this technological disaster is also an emotional disaster. It not only affects people's jobs but their livelihood and this came through in people's questions for panelists and sometimes emotional responses. People can rebuild after a hurricane, but this is fundamentally changing life along the Coast.

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Haiti Six-Month Anniversary

This week, we're returning our focus to Haiti in remembrance of the six month anniversary of the devastating January 12 earthquake.

IRD began distributing tarps, pharmaceuticals and medical commodities in Haiti in the first days following the disaster. Since then, we have been been transitioning them from immediate relief concerns to somewhat longer-term solutions, including temporary shelters and latrines for the displaced.

To find out more about what we are doing, take a look at our Flickr photostream of our recent temporary shelter construction, read our opinion piece on Haiti and the hurricane season in the Providence Journal, watch a video of our sanitation training, view the Google map of where we're working, or check out our updated fact sheet.

IRD is providing shelter to more than 50,000 people in Leogane - progress, even as the six month anniversary highlights the tremendous amount of work yet to be done.

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Global Health TV

IRD has partnered with Global Health TV, which is produced by the Global Health Council and WebsEdge, on a five minute film clip regarding the Women First program in Mozambique. Women First is being implemented in partnership with World Vision through funding by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Women First is a unique program facilitating women in Zambezia province in northern Mozambique to set up their own businesses and deliver health messages to their communities. In a country devastated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, this project is empowering vulnerable women who are often socially and economically excluded.

The film clip focuses on two women's groups ("mola" and "pededge"), both of which are in the district of Nicoadala, about 35 km from Quelimate City. Themos Ntasis, founder of Women's First, and now the director of IRD's programs in Zimbabwe, introduces the project. The film also features: Stella Carina, a line coordinator for IRD who provides health and business training to more than 200 women entrepreneurs; Aninha Fonseca and Juliana Cebola, two of the project beneficiaries: and Mansur Ibrahim, a wholesaler involved with the project.

The IRD piece is being screened at two major global health conferences in June 2010: Women Deliver (June 7-9) and the Global Health Council Conference (GHC) (June 14-18). Women Deliver is the leading global event for maternal and reproductive health - www.womendeliver.org. The GHC Conference promotes global efforts to saving lives by improving health throughout the world; this year' conference focuses on the importance of sound monitoring and evaluation - www.globalhealth.org. The clip will also be streamed and hosted online on Global Health TV - www.globalhealthtv.com - a dedicated digital channel for a full year after the conferences.

Of course, it's available on the IRD TV, on the IRD website, as well as our new YouTube Channel, irdvoices. Please check them both out, and stop by IRD's booth at the Women Deliver and Global Health Council Conference to tell us that you did.

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Haiti Benefit Results

First, on behalf of all IRD staff, I'd like to offer a big thank you to everyone who participated in our Haiti Benefit and Raffle last week near headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. We had a great turnout - over 300 - and those who came seemed to enjoy themselves. And most importantly, we collected almost $40,000 in money for our Haiti programs.

At the benefit we first aired our thank you video to our donors. Take a look and let us know what you think.

Having recently returned from Haiti, I can tell you this video represents pretty much exactly what this money has been and will be going to: building latrines, sanitation training, and providing shelter and temporary employment. And as we've mentioned in previous posts, because of weather, limited resources and deteriorating conditions, everyone in the NGO community is still working against the clock in Haiti. So please keep the efforts in your thoughts.

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