Nomad Art Gallery in association with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Sunday opened its doors for a photography exhibition and screening of a short documentary to mark the one year anniversary of devastating 2010 floods which affected more than 20 million people in Pakistan.
The photo exhibition, which will continue till August 4, highlights some eye-catching pictures taken by professional photographers of miseries endured by flood survivors, their resilience and the organization’s response to their urgent needs. The documentary titled ‘Recovering from Floods’ is a touching story of a mother of four children, Hafeez Mai who lost her husband and home when the 2010 floods reached Muzaffargarh district in Punjab, is also being shown during the nest 5 days.
Hafeez Mai’s story is very similar to countless others who are still trying to recover from the effects of the floods. The photographs included in the exhibition are focused the relief efforts of IOM officials. Distribution of foods, shelter houses, providing medical facility and community restoration were the focus of this photo exhibition. “We appreciate IOM and its staff’s untiring efforts in response to the needs of floods survivors, including distribution of shelter and household items, logistic and in-kind consignment handling support, capacity building and health services provision,” said Dr Zafar Iqbal Qadir, NDMA chairman at the ceremony.
In the twelve months since the floods, IOM along with humanitarian partners has reached more than 2.76 million flood-affected people with shelter and non-food item support and have provided medical services to over 120,000 people. IOM’s humanitarian communications programme has reached an estimated 7.1 million individuals, an IOM official told this scribe. In the early recovery phase, IOM is supporting the construction of 37,000 one room shelters for vulnerable families and also working on rehabilitation of 90 community infrastructure schemes including schools, hospitals, and roads in Sindh, Punjab, and KPK, the official maintained.
The head of IOM Pakistan’s Emergency and Stabilization Unit, Brian Kelly said that one year after the disaster, massive needs still persist across the country. IOM remains committed to helping the people of Pakistan rebuild their lives,” he said.