PRCS launches relief plan for 15,000 families

ISLAMABAD: Keeping in view the disastrous situation in the country after the flash floods, Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has launched a one month relief plan for 15,000 families in the affected areas.

According to a press release, the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), International Federation of Red Cross and other Red Crescent Societies are supporting the PRCS in the relief operation for the flood victims. The relief plan will include 8,000 families from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 5,000 families in Balochistan and 3,000 families in Punjab.

PRCS chairperson Senator Nilofar Bakhtiar has declared emergency at the PRCS national headquarters and its entire provincial and district branches. She said that Disaster Management (DM) cells are taking part in the relief operation in the affected areas.

The chairperson said the relief plan includes provision of food items, non-food items and medical facilities to the affected. Besides health and relief teams from the provincial branches, the PRCS National Headquarters has also dispatched health and relief teams with additional medicines and food packs to the affected areas. She said the plan will be further extended keeping in view the situation after detailed assessment reports.

An emergency control room has also been set up at national headquarters for prompt response to the affected. The PRCS volunteers are working round the clock in the areas to provide support to the victims, the spokesperson added.

PRCS Secretary General Muhammad Ilyas Khan said that PRCS has already mobilised its DM teams in Sibi, where the teams have reported huge losses of houses and damage to school buildings and mosques in the areas.

He said that over 3,000 families have been provided food items in Sibi. PRCS has set up a Medical Camp in UC Sultan Kot and has started providing health services to the affected. An ambulance service is also being provided to shift the critical injured to the nearby hospitals, he added.

The Secretary General said that PRCS DM Cell Loralai has been mobilised for rapid assessment in Kohlu and Barkhan but their progress has been hampered due to accessibility constraints. The Pakistan Red Crescent Health teams have treated 1,900 patients in these two towns by providing the affected families with free medicines and health care.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2010.