Aid delivery
	Camp management
	Site planning
	Water and sanitation
	Community services
	UNHCR Presence
	Winterization campaign
	Fire safety campaign
	Relocation/decongestion
	Contingency planning
	Registration
	Capacity building

 

	Aid delivery. UNHCR opened its warehouses in Pakistan and started distributing non-food relief items within hours of the earthquake. Within days, the first airlifts and convoys of supplies were arriving from UNHCR’s stockpiles in Afghanistan, Denmark, Dubai, Iran, India, Jordan and Turkey. For the first time ever, NATO formed a humanitarian air bridge to fly UNHCR relief items to Pakistan. So far, UNHCR has distributed 15,617 tents, 507,279 blankets, 55,147 plastic sheets, 1,446 plastic rolls, 19,412 jerry cans, 15,401 kitchen sets, 6,332 mattresses, 1,311 sleeping bags and 101,750 pieces of soap to the quake-affected areas.
	Camp management. As head of the camp management cluster, UNHCR is currently providing material and technical support in 26 planned camps run by the military, civil authorities or NGOs, as well as in 113 spontaneous camps. In total, there are close to 200,000 people living in 139 camps in North West Frontier Province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
	Site planning. Among its camp management responsibilities, UNHCR’s site planners and technical experts have helped the authorities to select, assess and plan sites for dozens of camps based on international standards. This involves choosing a suitable site based on location, road access, size, topography and availability of water. Health and hygiene concerns mean that tents cannot be pitched too closely together and that latrines must be situated far from the tents and water source. Gender sensitivity ensures privacy and good lighting for latrines, bathrooms and communal kitchens for women. Besides doing it themselves, UNHCR’s site planners have conducted training for the military, civil and NGO staff on site planning, decongesting over crowded locatiosn and water & sanitation in camps.
	Water and sanitation UNHCR 27 mobile technical teams have so far built 101 latrines, 59 washrooms and 117 kitchens in 31 camps to improve living conditions for quake survivors.
	Community services. UNHCR’s community services staff, together with 23 mobile camp management teams, have been meeting the special needs of vulnerable people (widows, unaccompanied children, the elderly and the disabled) in camps. The community services teams have set up women’s committees to reflect women’s concerns, started vocational training and offered counseling for the traumatized. The camp management teams are sensitizing camp residents to health, hygiene and fire safety concerns while mobilizing them to participate more in the running of the camps.
	UNHCR Presence. UNHCR boosted its emergency team from 72 people in November to 110 in December. As of 11 Jan. UNHCR has deployed 150 emergency staff members. Supported by a core team in Islamabad, the majority of them are in four humanitarian hubs (Manshera, Batagram, Muzaffarabad and Bagh) and two field offices (Balakot and Bisham).
	Winterization campaign. UNHCR has completed several rounds of distributions to prepare camp dwellers for the harsh winter. In Phase I: the aim of the campaign was to provide each person with three blankets and each tent with two plastic sheets and four mattresses. This phase is now complete. In Phase II: there is a further move to provide warmth in winter, and UNHCR is now distributing approximately 40,000 kerosene stoves to the camps. While in NWFP the government has agreed to communal heating, in AJK stoves are being distributed individually, to families. This is mainly because camps in AJK are more densely populated with little space to accommodate larger communal heating areas.
	Fire safety campaign. The risk of fire breaking out in tents remains a major concern for government authorities as well as aid workers. UNHCR, with other cluster members, is providing fire-prevention equipment (sand buckets, etc.), launching a fire safety campaign in camps and distributing leaflets with information on how to prevent a fire and what to do if it breaks out.
	Relocation/decongestion. In order to avoid squalid conditions in spontaneous camps and address sub-standard conditions that cannot be improved or upgraded, UNHCR is encouraging residents to move to planned camps with better facilities. Camps with available space have been identified for this purpose.
	Contingency planning. Together with the government, UNHCR is now ready to receive an additional 60,000 people in camps should the weather drive people down from the mountains and upper valleys.
	Registration. UNHCR is supporting the Pakistan government in a registration exercise in relief camps in AJK and NWFP in an attempt to fix the camp population, ensure assistance, identify the vulnerable individuals and assess the current and upcoming needs in the early recovery and reconstruction phase. The exercise will be completed by  18th January.
	Capacity building. The agency has been holding workshops on technical issues, registration and community services for the Pakistan military and civil authorities as well as local NGOs, in order to strengthen their ability to take over camp management in the spring. Through partners, UNHCR is also supporting vocational training for camp populations, empowering them to return and rebuild their homes and lives after winter.

Back To Top