2010 Flood Relief

Dear Supporters,

As you know, we along with the Pakistan Sustainability Network, have been working hard during the past month for flood relief efforts. Thanks to you all, we raised almost Rs. 6 Million and were able to provide relief camps for 1000 families in our two camps located in Charsadda (NWFP) and D.G. Khan (Punjab). The immediate relief work included shelter for which we provided tents and food items as well as hygiene packs for one month supply for each of the 1000 families. A total of over 7000 people!

By the grace of God, we accomplished our task and the people at the camps are not only grateful to you all, but have been giving you their earnest thanks.

People have now moved back to their homes/villages but unfortunately they still need our help. You all have seen the devastating effects on the infrastructure that the flood waters have caused, destroying almost all roads and civic amenities in these areas, not to mention their homes. So, now we have moved into the REHABILITATION phase. There are two areas that we have focused on in the Rehabilitation Phase;

1. Reconstruction of homes
2. Rebuilding of livelihoods

The above two areas are what we feel are the most basic needs so that these people can have a regular place to live in and also start earning their own livelihoods so that they are not dependent on handouts for the rest of their lives. In this context, we have made the following two proposals;

Reconstruction of Homes

We have agreed to join hands with the Punjab Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) to build a model village in Southern Punjab. The model village would be built on designs provided by the renowned architect, Nayyar Ali Dada, who has given his efforts free of cost. Each house costs Rs. 300,000 and a model village would comprise of 50 homes, with proper streets, sewerage, electricity etc. These villages would have a school and basic health unit and also a commercial area. We have the designs ready and they can be emailed to you on your request. We also inquired as to the plans to keep the historical culture intact, and it was with this that Ali Dada developed these plans. For one model village we would require Rs. 15 Million. Considering how much we were able to raise during the floods, this should not be a very big problem. But imagine the impact we could create!

So, the first aim is to raise the Rs. 15 Million so that we can start building this new village.

Rebuilding of Livelihoods

With the help of your overwhelming support we were able to raise enough funds for over 7000 people by providing tents, clean water and food for a month. Now that people have returned to their homes, they are faced with massive challenges of unemployment, and extreme crop damages, with no assets left to earn enough for new growing season (which starts this month) they are left with little options. The most basic earning in villages is through agriculture, therefore we have prepared a package for Rs. 30000 for each farmer in which we would provide them with seed and fertilizers for the coming wheat season. This would help them in earning their own livelihoods and restart their earnings. We are targeting a total of 500 farmers each of them would get Rs. 30,000 so a total of Rs. 15 million is needed for this.

A GRAND TOTAL OF RS. 30 MILLION
i.e. Rs. 3 Crores is needed to achieve the above goals.

This is approximately US$ 350,000 plus whatever expenses are needed so I am assuming a goal of US$ 500,000. In the past 2 months we have seen donations from 10 countries therefore if each of these 10 countries aims to raise US$ 50,000 we should easily be able to meet our target by December!

For this purpose we plan to help hold charity events (fashion shows, musical events, culture nights, etc) in these 10 countries: Pakistan, India, Dubai, Bulgaria, Singapore, U.K., Belgium, Norway, Canada and the USA.

We are getting started from today and invite you to support us so that we can set a target date of say December 15th, to have our ground breaking of the model village.

		To donate from pakistan: MCB bank LTD, Fortress Stadium Branch, Lahore. A/C number: 1834-2 branch code: 0963
IN USD	IN CAD	IN PKR

For more information please contact: @sustainablepakistan.org">2010floodrelief@sustainablepakistan.org

Photo credit: REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood