The UN has said Friday its humanitarian agencies stand ready to provide help in Pakistan's Swat region where some 100,000 people need food, clothing and blankets after heavy snowfalls and avalanches blocked roads and left some areas cut off from the major towns.
So far Pakistani Army has provided food supplies by helicopter and is clearing the roads, the UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. Last week, UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Pakistan Martin Mogwanja had called on the international community not to forget the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable civilians displaced by fighting in the tribal areas in the north-west region, urging donors to contribute to a $537 million appeal to meet the immediate relief needs.
This week, UN agencies continued their aid for internally displaced persons (IDPs) with the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) distributing hygiene kits to some 23,850 families or about 135,000 people from Orakzai who sought refuge in Kohat and Hangu, a UN news release said.
So far, 2,900 kits have been distributed to the families in Kohat. In Hangu, OCHA and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) facilitated the distribution of non-food items donated by a national non-governmental organisation (NGO) at Mohammad Khawaja Camp including quilts, clothing for children and women and kitchen sets for around 216 families.
The number of IDP families from South Waziristan remains unchanged at 38,524 or about 280,000 people, most of them living in their winter accommodations or with host families nearby, it said. Moreover, in the Jalozai IDP camp, Unicef has set up temporary learning spaces for 10 primary schools and started middle and secondary education in some parts of the camp, while the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has started distributing fruit and forest plants to over 3,700 households in Buner, Lower Dir and Swat.
They will also be trained in various planting techniques, such as budding and grafting. UN-HABITAT, the UN Human Settlements Programme mandated to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities to provide adequate shelter for all, also, continued its 'cash-for-work' projects in Sultanwas village in Buner, removing the rubble of about 68 houses.
It has also conducted 4 training sessions on brick masonry and carpentry for 90 people in the same area. In Mardan, Swabi and Charsadda, UN-Habitat completed over 320 projects of community infrastructure repairs such as street paving, drains, water channels, community guest houses, sheds and latrines.
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