Medical aid for 15,000 recent Sindh Floods Victims

Heavy August rainfall and subsequent levy breaks have left over seven million people in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province homeless. According to the country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), 1.36 million homes have been damaged, with 23 districts severely affected. Some 6,000 villages have been completely wiped out by the floods.

The flooding is so intense, that for several stretches there is no land in sight at all, saddening and terrifying at the same time. The Speaker of the National Assembly, who belongs to the area, says there is no high ground left to set up rescue camps. 

Over one million people are living under the open sky - by the road side and on embankments. These families lack food, clean water, sanitation and have lost their livelihoods and their homes. The Pakistani government is appealing to the international donor community to provide shelter, food, medical supplies and bottled drinking water.

The worst is not over yet with the threat of water-borne epidemics including diarrhea, malaria and other such diseases. As several low lying areas remain submerged under two to five feet of stagnant water, citizens are demanding authorities to take steps to drain and treat the water, and appealing for medical assistance to treat and prevent illnesses.

SHINE Humanity and our ground partner, Comprehensive Disaster Response Services (CDRS) have been at the forefront of disaster response in Pakistan - having responded to the Earthquake(2005), Swat Refugee Crisis (2009), Sindh Monsoon Crisis (2009) and the Floods (2010). In the year since the August 2010 floods, SHINE Humanity-CDRS teams have treated over  70,000 flood-affected patients and assisted 30,000 more with humanitarian needs and livelihood support. 

Our ground team has completed a 10 day long mission to deliver food rations to 1,500 individuals. We are launching a second phase of this mission in the Mirpurkhas, near the Thar Desert in Sindh, inhabited mostly by minority communities who have received little or no help to date. Our focus this time will be on mobile medical services and humanitarian assistance. Our goal is to serve 15,000 patients. 

For as little as $2, you can save a baby threatened with dehydration, deliver an antidote to a snake-bite victim, or provide a mother anti-malarial drugs. Act now, and help stop the loss of lives and reduce suffering.