How Oxfam's Relief Goods Help Flood Victims in Pakistan
23 July 2007
What to do when all you ever owned is suddenly swept away by torrential rains and floods? When all that is left are dry patches of land amid puddles of dirty water? No transportation to take you to a better place, no money to replace your belongings.
How to keep your family healthy when there are no toilet facilities and people use the same water sources for drinking and bathing?
Oxfam and local partners are providing 35,000 people in Balochistan and Sindh provinces with essential items that will help them survive during the first weeks. After that, the focus will shift to rehabilitation. Right now, each family receives a hygiene kit, an emergency-transitional shelter kit, two jerrycans, two buckets, a water purification packet and a kitchen set.
But what exactly is in these kits and how will the relief goods help people in need?
Health and hygiene
Each of Oxfam’s hygiene kits contains 3.5 kilograms of soap, a soap dish, two towels and two family size packages of dentonic powder, a substitute for toothpaste. People also receive a lota, a jug traditionally present in every Pakistani bathroom where use of toilet paper is not common. Two meters of cotton cloth should offer some relief to menstruating women, which is provided along with extra undergarments. Because women in these remote areas do not mingle with men other than their direct family members, and because they lack sufficient shelter and privacy, they can only relieve and wash themselves at night. The hygiene kit includes candles and matches, and is completed with some ORS sachets to avoid dehydration and separate detergents to wash clothes and dishes.
These goods will of course have a limited effect when people are not sure how to use them properly. That’s why local health and hygiene promoters explain people how to use the different soaps and that it is better not to wash yourself right in the same source you drink from. Local radio stations and posters keep repeating the same message. There are special programs for children with games and songs that teach them the basics of personal hygiene. Pit latrines and bathing facilities with separate sections for women are being constructed to improve overall hygiene.
Throughout the affected communities, Oxfam and counterparts are distributing tools to clean the area, such as wheel barrows, shovels and pick axes. Tractors will be hired where needed and public health officers are mobilizing people in cleaning campaigns to prevent the outbreak of epidemic diseases. Oxfam, its local partners and government departments are busy in hygiene campaigns to reduce public health risks to affected people. They are removing carcasses, cleaning and rehabilitating water and sanitation infrastructure at household level and in schools where displaced people have taken shelter.
Shelter
People use tents to store the few personal belongings they managed to save from the mud and the relief goods they have been given. They do not sleep in them—it is simply far too hot with temperatures soaring over 110 degrees Fahrenheit. The one thing they cannot go without, however, is something that offers them shade. That is why distribution teams hand out 4x6 meter plastic sheets, four 8-feet bamboo sticks, steel nails, 16 meters of cotton rope and a hammer to each family. Especially in areas where trees are scarce these makeshift marquees protect people from the baking sun.
Water
You could of course collect and store water in any old bowl. But would this keep flies, maggots and dirt away from the water you are about to drink? With two 10-liter jerry cans and two 12-liter buckets with lids, mothers are less likely to give their children water crawling with insects. This, however, does not ensure the water is fit to drink. Therefore Oxfam and its local partners provide people with a local water purifier called Musaffa.
Communities are sometimes reluctant to use purified water from collective tanks because it tastes different and they fear it will make them sick. Musaffa comes in sachets and is made in Pakistan for household use. The powder is a mixture of sand and silver, which, when added to water in a bucket, will provide effective water purification for several weeks. Silver is a bactericide and known for its capacity to keep water fresher for longer—at a cost of only US$1.50 per family!
At community level, water and sanitation engineers are testing water, cleaning and rehabilitating water wells and installing water tanks and small pumps in schools. Here again, they advise people on the proper use of the installations.
Cooking
Even though food is difficult to get in the affected areas, it is important to eat properly to maintain good health. Oxfam’s kitchen sets include three different sized cooking pots, six plates and glasses, a tray, a large wooden spoon for cooking and an iron plate. Pakistani meals without naan bread are rare, so people also receive a belan with wooden patla, a wooden board and stick to flatten the dough.
It is hard to make a cup of chai (strong black tea with milk and lots of sugar) without a tea pot. Making a tea pot part of the kitchen set also has health benefits. People need to boil water to make chai, and therefore kill the bacteria that cause water-borne diseases.
Traditionally and culturally, women are ‘owners’ of household assets such as kitchen utensils; losing them means losing an asset that women take pride in, and is key in their role as a family caregiver. Although basic, these items help in restoring some of the lost dignity and pride eroded by the disaster and mean women have fewer worries, making the harsh conditions women live in a bit more bearable.
Mirjam van den Berg is an information officer for Oxfam Novib (Netherlands).
