Punjab, KP charity organisations to help rain-hit people of Sindh

Humanitarian organisations from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have taken the initiative to help the rain-affected people of Sindh. Realising the need for a coordinated response in the face of large scale emergency the province of Sindh is facing, some five humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) of Sindh with support of partner organisations from Punjab and KP have started a three-day rapid need assessment in the seven severely rain-hit districts.
In a meeting of the active humanitarian organizations, it was pointed out that the seven severely affected districts are Badin, Sanghar, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Tando Muhammad Khan and Benazirabad.
Hussain Jarwar of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), a participating organisation in this survey, said, “Humanitarian organisations are individually active in rescue and other support operations in Badin and other affected districts but as the scale and severity of the disaster has increased, there is a need for collective efforts. With collective assessment, we will be able to better coordinate our response.” A team of 100 humanitarian staff trained in rapid assessment techniques has left their offices on Saturday to assess the problems the displaced people are facing and would bring back their findings on Monday.
The group is looking forward to developing a comprehensive response plan based on the needs assessed during this brief exercise.
Liaqat Tameemi of Doaba Foundation from Punjab, explaining the purpose of this response said, “The people of Sindh came to our help during the last year’s floods and now it is time to return this favour.
The NGOs carrying out this collective assessment are the Sindh Agricultural and Forestry Workers Coordination Organisation, PFF, Participatory Development Initiative (PDI), Laar Humanitarian and Development Programme and Thardeep Rural Development Programme.
The participating organisations from Punjab are Doaba Foundation and Help Foundation whereas Rural Development Program, Pakistan Community Development Program and Saaibaan are from KP.