Two teams of volunteers are already in the field. One of them is running an AKU camp and providing mother and child services in Naushero Feroz while the other team is working in Bilal Colony, Karachi. Four more teams are to start working by Monday, one in Karachi and the others in Hyderabad, Matiari and Larkana.
Over the next few weeks, AKU plans to send out 50 multidisciplinary teams to areas that have been declared as priority areas by the United Nations and other provincial agencies.
“At this critical juncture, we are focused on reaching the poorest in need and on being sufficiently flexible to adapt to changing circumstances in the field,” said Dr Zulfiqar Bhutta, chair, Division of Women and Child Health. “
While water and sanitation related illnesses such as diarrhoea, skin infections, typhoid and hepatitis A along with malaria, snake bites and mental health problems may be common right now, this pattern may change in the coming weeks and will require appropriate responses.”
AKU’s relief efforts will be coordinated with other agencies of Aga Khan Development Network such as FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance Pakistan, Aga Khan Health Services Pakistan, Aga Khan Education Service Pakistan, Aga Khan Planning and Building Service Pakistan, First Microfinance Bank.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 20th, 2010.
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