Ghornisa sifts flour provided by the World Food Programme to make chapatis. As part of its activities, the organization provides rice, wheat flour, yellow split peas, vegetable oil, and salt.

“I am very proud of what has been accomplished since the October 2005 earthquake,” says Pakistani Zahid Majeed, who has been employed by the World Food Programme (WFP) for nearly 25 years. “This relief operation is the most difficult I have experienced in terms of logistics and the largest that the WFP has ever carried out using helicopters.” In fact, the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service has deployed an impressive fleet of 26 helicopters to deliver food supplies and various services to the most remote communities.

The WFP estimated that 2.3 million people would need food aid from October 2005 to April 2006. WFP supplies (more than 100,000 tonnes of wheat flour, rice, legumes, dates, high-energy biscuits, oil, and salt) have been distributed by the organization and through reliable local and international non-governmental organizations.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) gave the WFP $5.7 million at the beginning of the crisis to support logistics and the WFP’s support services, particularly to fund the rental of helicopters to successfully carry out relief efforts in Pakistan.

Food aid is a necessity in the camps for internally displaced persons. Located in the Mansehra district, the Siraan Sialkot camp is one of the most recent of the government camps that have come to the rescue of people displaced by the quake. In August 2006, the camp still had 71 families. Often, the most vulnerable are found there: orphans, widows, and persons with disabilities. “Without the food distributed in the camp, the lives of these needy people would be at risk,” says Maria Daud, a Pakistani WFP food aid officer.

With the destruction of tens of thousands of businesses, roads, schools and municipal offices as a result of the earthquake, a large part of the population has also been deprived of work and income. “It is very difficult to rebuild your life when you have lost everything: your house, job, roads that allow access to goods and services,” says Mr. Majeed.

To help devastated communities, the WFP also relies on other initiatives to meet priority food needs while supporting public restoration and reconstruction efforts. In exchange for work, for example, participants receive food supplies and basic training in various key areas, such as constructing and repairing irrigation channels, repairing secondary roads, building and repairing terraces for farming in mountainous terrain, building and upgrading trails to help isolated communities reach neighbouring villages, and producing reconstruction materials.

For cultural reasons, men are the main beneficiaries of that type of food-for-work program. The WFP also provides a program for women on nurturing small plants that will one day become trees and thus stabilize the soil and avoid landslides as a result of earthquakes and particularly violent storms. Children are given protein-rich biscuits and dates in school, a WFP project with the goal of improving children’s health and encouraging attendance at school.

Life gradually gets back to normal after the earthquake. At the Siraan Sialkot camp, young boys have fun playing cricket.

Thanks to projects such as these, both children and adults in Pakistan can improve their living conditions and play an active role in rebuilding their community.

For further information:

• Canada Funds Helicopters to Relieve Earthquake Victims
• More Resources for Pakistanis Thanks to World Vision