13 October 2005

ActionAid, an agency in the Disasters Emergency Committee South Asia Quake appeal, has begun searching for remote villages in Indian-administered Kashmir where aid may not have reached.

ActionAid teams based in India and Pakistan are already delivering a combination of food, shelter and psychological support to ensure that thousands of earthquake survivors are helped now and for the long term.

Pakistan
ActionAid Pakistan is giving top priority to procuring and transporting relief supplies and setting up relief camps. It is working with local organisations and has teamed up with CARE, which has provided a generator, funds and other supplies.

Four trucks carrying relief supplies arrived in Balakot on Tuesday night, followed yesterday by a van carrying seven doctors and two paramedics. The medical team includes two women.

By Friday ten trucks carrying food, tents, blankets and medical supplies will have reached Mansehra in Hazara division, Kashmir. Volunteers are procuring and packing supplies as they are disappearing fast from markets.

India
ActionAid India and its partner organisations have mobilised an 80-strong team which includes 40 local people working as counsellors. The counsellors have worked for the past two years supporting families affected by violence in the area. Now they are using their skills to help people cope with the the earthquake’s legacy of injury, loss and bereavement.

ActionAid India is providing 3000 families with the essentials of life. A thousand families have already received aid worth 11,000 rupees (£140) each. The supplies include waterproof tents to accommodate 7-8 people for the next six months, community tents, blankets and family kits containing 15 days food (raw grains and oil), shoes and education material for the children, medicines and essentials for women.

As part of an effort to identify areas not yet reached by aid, ActionAid staff and volunteers have begun a survey of more than 25 villages in the remote areas of Uri and Baramulla. The local administration will airlift 500 blankets and 200 family kits to these areas for ActionAid.

Involving local people
Roger Yates, ActionAid’s head of emergencies and human security, stressed the importance of involving local people in the relief effort and keeping them well informed.

"You must keep people informed of what to expect," he said. "As soon as people get frustrated because they are not told what is going on, they get angry, their stress increases and trouble ensues. Too often survivors' wishes are neglected."