200 homes handed over to flood-hit families

Caritas Austria, Faces Pakistan building 600 houses in Kashmore.

LAHORE:

Caritas, the charity arm of the Catholic Church, has built and handed over 200 houses to flood-affected families in Kashmore in Sindh, said Caritas Austria Director Franz Kuberl.

Caritas Austria raised 5.6 million euros (about Rs674 million) for rehabilitation and reconstruction projects in Pakistan after last year’s devastating floods. Caritas, in collaboration with its local partner Faces Pakistan, plans to build and hand over a total of 600 houses to families in six villages in Kashmore district.

Kuberl, speaking to The Express Tribune at Faces Pakistan office here, said 200 of the houses had been built and handed over.

Another 100 were finished and the rest would be completed by December, he said. “Caritas is also helping people through the trauma by providing food and medical care,” he said.

A Faces Pakistan official identified the villages as Sherlabad, Habit Pakko, Gulsher Chacher, Badal Sabzoi, Bhuner and Jatoi.

He said the Austrian people felt great sympathy towards the calamity-stricken people of Pakistan and Caritas had the 5.6 million euros in around four weeks. “It was a gesture of solidarity with the Pakistani people in this hour of need,” he said.

Kuberl said that the disaster had brought together a lot of Pakistani organisations devoted to rehabilitation work. “They have learnt to cooperate and help one anther out for this noble cause,” he said.

He said he had also visited Pakistan after the 2007 earthquake in Kashmir and had been shocked to see the devastation it caused. He said that education would be the big challenge in these areas following the rehabilitation phase for flood-affected communities. He said Caritas would help with this.

Kuberl is part of a three-member delegation from Austria in Pakistan for 11 days visiting projects and field offices of partners. Caritas Pakistan has been active in the country since 1965. It is a member organisation of Caritas Internationalis based in Rome, Italy.

Faces (Formation, Awareness, and Community Empowerment Society) Pakistan is a non-profit organisation that aims to promote inter-religious harmony, human rights, social justice, sustainable development and gender equality, while helping local communities gain access to these social development factors, said a Faces Pakistan official. Its parent group is based in the UK.

Faces Pakistan has worked on various projects in Pakistan including flood relief in 2010, housemaid vocational training, building schools for the children of Afghan refugees, helping internally displaced people in Dera Ismail Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2011.