Response to Afghanistan/Pakistan Earthquake

When the ground started shaking violently during the 7.5-magnitude earthquake on October 26^th in remote Charmango Qala village of Kunar province, Mr. Fazal-Ur-Rehman knew immediately what to do.

He ran out of his house to avoid being injured inside by falling debris. He saw many of the houses around him crumbled, trapping his neighbors inside, and fired his bird-hunting gun in the air—the unofficial SOS signal in the community—to call for help. As soon as other villagers came to his aid, together they started to dig through the rubble searching for survivors. In the meantime, they called the police and army squad to ask for their help. Within just 30 minutes, International Medical Corps-trained Community Emergency Response Team volunteers also responded to the scene. Together, these groups rescued the men, women and children buried under their destroyed homes. Miraculously, everyone was safe and sound.

Kunar province in Afghanistan is an area especially prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides and avalanches. Its mountains are strewn with small villages spread out over thousands of square miles. Because these communities are so hard to reach and often cut off from the outside world during a natural disaster, International Medical Corps has made it a priority to prepare them in advance—creating a response capacity that is immediate and self-reliant. When the earthquake struck, Mr. Fazal-Ur-Rehman knew how best to help himself and his neighbors thanks to the advance training he had received from International Medical Corps.

Meanwhile, in a small village in Chawki district about 20 miles to the southeast, a team of volunteers trained in first aid by International Medical Corps received news of a house that had collapsed in the earthquake. Led by Mr. Malawi Delawar Kahn, the team began a search-and-rescue operation and found three injured people under the rubble. Thanks to their training, the team was able to control the victims’ bleeding before helping with their transfer to a district hospital for further treatment.

Natural disasters are inevitable in this remote part of the world, and the examples of Mr. Fazal-Ur-Rehman and Mr. Malawi Delawar Kahn show that being prepared can mean the difference between life and death. In this response, International Medical Corps drew on its more than 30 years of experience in Afghanistan providing lifesaving medical care, training, and other services to vulnerable populations. Since October 26^th, International Medical Corps has provided more than 30,000 medical and 4,000 psychosocial consultations. We have also reached more than 9,000 earthquake-affected people with emergency relief supplies, such as soap, toothbrushes, and toothpaste for hygiene needs and tents and tarp for temporary shelter, and an additional 6,000 people with winterization supplies, including warm clothing and blankets.

International Medical Corps thanks GlobalGiving and other donors for their support as our teams and trained volunteers continue to respond to the devastation that resulted from the October 26^th earthquake in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan on October 26 has killed more than 400 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 111,000 homes in northeastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. With winter weather conditions already setting in, it is critical to reach those in need as soon as possible.

International Medical Corps teams are mobilized and supporting a response that includes:

• Eight mobile medical units deployed across Nuristan province, Afghanistan – one for each district in the hard-hit region. Nuristan’s 160 health posts are staffed by community health workers that had been previously trained by International Medical Corps.  Together, these mobile medical units and staffed health posts have provided health care to at least 3,989 people in the aftermath of the quake; with communications down, some health posts have been unable to report in.
• 7,966 people have benefitted from the distribution of 1,138 relief kits in Afghanistan -- these kits include blankets, plastic sheeting, water containers, hygiene supplies and more.
• Our teams are now working closely with the leadership of Badakhshan province, Afghanistan, where damage is reportedly the most extensive, to determine how we can best report response efforts. 
• In Pakistan, International Medical Corps mobile medical units are providing care in the remote Shangla District – at times walking up to four hours in mountainous regions to reach villages.  Since the quake, teams have provided 1,207 health consultations and psychosocial consultations for 360 people.  104 families in Pakistan have received hygiene kits and blankets.

In addition to providing health care services and supplies, we have mobilized some of our 19,000 volunteers in Afghanistan who had previously been trained by International Medical Corps in emergency response.  We continue to receive reports of how these teams have responded in their own communities – in one village, the community response team immediately went to work digging families out of rubble; in another, a community response team cleared a stream that had been blocked by debris, reducing the chance of subsequent flooding that would due further damage to their homes.

Thanks to the support of GlobalGiving and other generous donors, International Medical Corps is able to provide lifesaving services in some of the most hard-to-reach areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.