Responding to Pakistan Crisis
Posted 2009.06.03
By Harmony Trevino
Past Shipments:
- 2009.07.06 – Send Pharmaceuticals to IDPS in Pakistan
Giving Children Hope is sending pharmaceuticals to the NCHD Mobile Medical Teams in Pakistan to help provide health care to internally displaced persons affected by the recent military action in the Swat Valley.
The mobile health team will provide neo-natal care to expecting mother, cover the health needs of infants (less than two years) who are more vulnerable to infections, control diarrhea and the outbreak of epidemics, and provide anti-malarial support. The clinics will also provide health education to displaced families to guard against infections and other diseases cause by massive displacement, unhygienic conditions, and sever hot weather. Each team will be staffed by a doctor, Lady Health Worker, and drive that will treat patients in their camps.
The five more prevalent ailments treated at the clinic include diarrhea, skin problems, worms, respiratory tract infections and injuries.
The shipment of pharmaceuticals will benefit people temporarily living in 416 mini relief camps each housing 30-50 families. Approximately 1.3 million people have been displaced and UNHCR estimates this may rise to 2 million.
In a period of one month, approximately 7,500 people are expected to benefit from the work of each mobile medical team. This emergency project is intended to provide basic medical care and stem the spread of infection and malaria.
Updates & Visuals
Updates:
How GCHope Helped Those In Pakistan!
The GCHope shipments were distributed to mobile medical camps treating people internally displaced by fighting in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. Thirteen mobile medical teams received items in the shipment. These teams conducted 850 mobile medical camps that treated a total of 66,215 patients. The mobile medical teams served internally displaced persons living in mini relief camps in Mardan. They especially focused their attentions on expecting mothers, infants under 2 years old and other children particularly vulnerable to infection.
Meet Kainat:
When counter-insurgency operations started to heat up in her area in early 2009, seven year old Kainat’s family fled their home in Swat and moved to a makeshift camp in Akbar Abad. They were among approximately 1.3 million people displaced by the fighting from Swat, Buner, Sangla, and Lower Dir – the second largest internal displacement in the history of Pakistan. In Akbar Abai, Kainat and her family lived in temporary shelters while they waited to be told that it was safe to return home. Though they were safe from violence, the lack of latrines, water points, bathing spaces, and solid waste disposal, severe food and water shortages, as well as a general lack of proper medical care for the exhausted and weak population, made life extremely difficult. Soon, due to unhygienic living conditions and severe hot weather, Kainat began to suffer from chronic diarrhea and became more and more weak. Thankfully, Akbar Abai was one of the first camps visited by one of thirteen mobile medical teams organized by local agencies to provide primary health care to internally displaced peoples. Within days of being given antibiotics, pain relievers, and oral rehydration solution, Kainat was healthier. She was one of over 66,000 IDPs treated by mobile medical teams, who worked tirelessly over four months to prevent countless senseless deaths.
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Shipments
2012.02.29 – Philippines ($9,975) /$10k
2012.02.29 – India ($9,975) /$10k
2012.06.30 – United States of America ($10k) /$15k
2012.06.30 – United States of America ($276k) /$620k
2012.09.30 – Iraq ($10k) /$15k
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