Our Response to Pakistan's Earthquake

Within hours of October 8's 7.6-magnitude earthquake in Pakistan, we dispatched a surveyor to the scene and began assembling a team to assist the estimated 3 million Pakistanis in need of aid to feed themselves and to survive the severe Himalayan winter.

Currently, our team numbers 14 expatriates and 120 nationals. In Balakot, Battagram, Jared, and Rashang, we've trucked in water to refugee camps, commercial centers, hospitals, residential neighborhoods, and schools. We've restored a water source for a hospital, repaired drainage systems, distributed jerry cans (in which families carry water), and built latrines, showers, and waste management systems. We've educated refugees about hygiene and passed out hygiene kits. We're delivering food to 21,000 beneficiaries, which means that on each day we make distributions, we move at least 30 tons of food (including lentils, rice, spices, sugar, and tea) as well as thousands of tents and blankets.

Our team in Pakistan, however, faces challenges unlike those confronting our other missions. First, the country's geography is unique for us. For the first time, Action Against Hunger-USA is operating in the Himalayas, higher and more rugged than any terrain we've negotiated elsewhere. Plus, at our mission in, say, South Sudan, we don't need to plan for snow. In Pakistan, by contrast, we know that winter storms will halt access to many of our potential beneficiaries, so we must bring as much relief as we can before impassable barriers arrive. Complicating our task is the sheer magnitude of the assistance required: Many of the 3 million homeless Pakistanis scattered over thousands of square miles can be reached only by helicopter—on days when the weather cooperates.

To make matters worse, aftershocks from the October 8 earthquake, many of themviolent, threaten our team as much as they menace Pakistanis. Though similar aftershocks rattle Indonesia 12 months after last year's tsunami, the shimmying ground there is flat. In Pakistan, towering mountains echo the loud crack of every tremor, adding explosive volume to the alarming sound. And when members of our team drive along roads that haven't been closed by landslides, they often pass below huge boulders sitting precariously on mountains rising above them. If team members are below when an aftershock hits, a boulder can tumble on top of them. Nor can drivers dodge boulders by swerving across the road because they'd drop off a precipice.

Finally, all of our missions strive to be sensitive to local cultures, but nowhere else do we cope with a Muslim tradition as conservative as Pakistan's. Because Pakistani men insist that we stay far from the women who manage their households, we must distribute food only to men and educate them about hygiene and food security. The men must then pass along the distributions and lessons to their wives. Expatriate women may speak with Pakistani women, but the men on our team are expected to avoid even a look or a greeting. And we can't send female expatriates alone into isolated areas lest they encounter reprisals for their show of independence. "We must respect their culture," explains our Food Security Director Devrig Velly. This challenge, too, makes our mission in Pakistan unique.

Nonetheless, we plan to stay the course, to provide as much assistance as we can for however long the Pakistanis need our help to regain their self-sufficiency.