Relief for flood-displaced families in Pakistan

It’s been exactly one year since heavy monsoon rains created a severe flood that left one-fifth of Pakistan's total land area underwater. Twenty million people were directly affected – losing homes and farmlands, livelihoods and loved ones. With your help, Mercy Corps responded.

Your donation to Mercy Corps last year helped us provide flood-affected families in Pakistan with urgently needed food and water immediately after the disaster. Since then, Mercy Corps has helped many families get back on their feet and begin the long process of rebuilding their lives.

Your donation helped Mercy Corps:

• Provide nearly 10,000 people with safe drinking water – daily – immediately after the flood.
• Distribute thousands of emergency food kits containing rice, lentils, cooking oil and powdered milk.
• Distribute 330 tool kits containing a wheelbarrow, shovel and hammer to help families rebuild their homes, farms and businesses.
• Distribute hygiene kits that benefited 56,730 people.
• Organize the distribution of water-purification tablets to far-flung villages.
• Build new water points and repair handpumps.
• Install 300 latrines and 26 bathrooms.
• Establish mobile health units that treated 12,230 patients.
• Implement cash-for-work programs to start rebuilding and repairing vital infrastructure — schools, irrigation canals, access roads — and to educate other villagers about important topics like proper hygiene.  

 Lal’s Story

Lal Khatoon, age 40, is typical of cash-for-work participants. A widow with two children, Lal used to work long hours in the fields and she owned more than a dozen livestock, including buffalo, cows and sheep. All of her animals died during the floods, and her rice crop was washed away.

After fleeing her home last summer, Lal lived in a makeshift camp alongside a road in the nearby city of Jacobabad with her children. Once she returned to her village of Dur Mohammed, she found that her home and everything she owned was gone. She resorted to sleeping outside on a simple bed until she could rebuild.

Lal didn’t know where she would find the money to rebuild her home, but regained some hope when she learned of Mercy Corps’ cash-for-work program. Lal attended a hygiene training session where she learned basic messages and practices to keep herself, her family and her home clean. As part of the program, she then took these messages on the road, going door to door in her village to educate other women. Her efforts will play a critical role in keeping the village healthy, plus she’ll earn income to begin rebuilding her home and purchase basics like food, medicines and clothing for her family.

Learn more about Mercy Corps projects in Pakistan:

• Repairing Roads and Rebuilding Lives in Pakistan (video) 
• Ensuring Clean Water for Pakistan’s Flood-Displaced Families (video) 
• Women’s Mobile Clinics (video)

Thank you again for your donation to Mercy Corps’ work in Pakistan. With your help, people like Lal and her family have hope for a better future.