MARCH 2006
In this section:
Swift Relief Averted Post-Quake Tragedy in Pakistan
Horn of Africa Receives $110M Food Aid in Growing
Emergency
Bush Asks $23.7B Foreign Aid in ‘07
Swift Relief Averted Post-Quake Tragedy in Pakistan
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HAULING FLOUR—A Pakistani worker unloads U.S.-donated
wheat flour at the Mehra Camp for displaced earthquake
survivors. Families use the flour to make flat bread.
Ben Barber, USAID
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MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan—As winter winds down,
the death rate among survivors of the Oct. 8 earthquake has
been far less than feared due to a swift airlift of U.S. and
other food, medicine, tents, and blankets, officials said.
A relatively mild winter also spared many of the survivors.
“People said 200,000 would die after the quake but
it didn’t happen,” said USAID Pakistan Mission Director
Lisa Chiles.
Although the earthquake killed nearly 75,000 people and
left more than 2 million homeless, fewer Pakistanis have died
in the region since that time than die in an average winter,
according to World Health Organization Acting Country Representative
Dr. Rana Graber Kakar.
“The second wave of deaths, usually due to lack of
shelter and injuries not treated in time, was averted by quick
response by partners,” Dr. Kakar said in an interview.
“There was a huge helicopter evacuation of the injured.
“The third wave [of deaths] usually comes from outbreaks
of disease and it was completely averted. Before the quake,
this region was isolated and had little health care. You might
have seen more deaths than now since we have immunization
and surveillance in every district and responded to every
report of illness.”
Reports that the homeless Pakistanis had received enough
aid to successfully weather the winter came as U.S. and NATO
troops began ending their massive airlift to remote villages.
NATO troops in February ended their relief mission, saying
they had flown 18,000 tents, 50,000 blankets, 32,000 mattresses,
50,000 sleeping bags, 17,000 stoves, and large amounts of
medicine. It was the largest NATO humanitarian operation outside
its member countries.
U.S. officials announced Feb. 4 that U.S. military operations
will end March 31 and USAID will transition from emergency
relief operations by the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance
into longer-term reconstruction activities by the USAID mission
based in Islamabad.
Rear Adm. Michael Lefever told a press conference that “U.S.
forces along with myself arrived within less than 48 hours”
after the quake and in the next 117 days flew “over 4,000
sorties with our Chinooks [helicopters] delivering over 11,000
tons of relief supplies. Nearly 32,000 patients have been
seen at the hospitals in the different locations including
remote outreach missions and we also cleared over 50,000 tons
of debris and built numerous schools and facilities with our
Navy construction battalion.”
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NEW HOUSE—Villagers in Langla along the Jhelum
River in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir stand near a new
home built on the foundations of a house destroyed in
the earthquake. USAID supplied the metal roofing sheets,
other materials, tools, and know-how. It is earthquake-resistant,
its wooden structure made from heavy beams that were
sawn into thinner boards.
Ben Barber/USAID
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From the window of a Chinook helicopter clattering in the
narrow corridors between the snow-covered peaks north of Islamabad,
the extent of the damage is apparent: one can see tens of
thousands of tents pitched in the center of big cities such
as Muzaffarabad and Bagh. Thousands more are pitched in orderly
rows in camps set up by Pakistan’s army and serviced
by the United Nations, USAID, and NGOs.
Tens of thousands more tents are pitched near small clusters
of homes, in the terraced fields, and among the rocks and
the rubble of destroyed houses.
Many of the blue and white tents lie next to what appear
to be intact houses. However, upon closer examination the
structures have cracked walls, shattered beams, and ruined
foundations.
The Pakistani survivors of the earthquake have been thoroughly
traumatized by the Saturday morning earthquake and are not
eager to try and resettle in the damaged buildings.
Instead they spend the winter in tents, often with USAID-provided
waterproof tarps to provide an outer layer of shelter from
rain, snow, and wind. Inside are families snuggled together
under thick quilts and blankets, awaiting the end of the short
but bitter winter.
In early February, USAID provided tens of thousands of families
with vouchers to obtain materials and tools to build small
houses that will be a step up from the tents and provide warmth
and privacy.
In the village of Langla, reached by crossing a suspension
bridge over the Jhelum River, people carried their materials
over the steep paths to their home sites.
Chiles said that the USAID relief experts of the Disaster
Assistance Response Team, or DART, who rushed here within
hours of the disaster, have been providing relief with an
eye toward “recovery and transition” so that the
earthquake survivors will be able to quickly return to their
homes and farms.
USAID has provided assistance in the following ways, she
said:
• Cash for work has given tens of thousands payment
for clearing debris, repairing roads, and other vital tasks.
The money stimulates local markets to recover.
• Women, traditionally secluded inside the family compound,
have been trained to sew clothing and learned to interact
with other women in community tents.
• Thousands of children who never went to school have
been enrolled in USAID-funded schools and are now eager to
continue education once they return home.
• Training in hygiene, sanitation, and clean water
prepare the Pakistanis to maintain better health once they
return home.
• USAID helped thousands of families obtain enough
tarps, tents, and corrugated galvanized iron sheets to create
a warm place to survive the winter without entering camps.
• For those unable to stay near home but afraid to
leave their livestock, displacement camps also provided fodder
and shelter for their animals, giving them important assets
when they return home in the spring.
Chiles said that the overall U.S. commitment to Pakistan
for relief and reconstruction is $510 million. It includes
$110 million for military operations; $100 million in relief;
$200 million for reconstruction; and $100 million from private-sector
contributions.
USAID officials are working with Pakistani officials on
the aid program for the coming months. “This may include,
for example, helping people restore their livestock, plant
their crops that need to be planted in March, April, and May,
and meet other kinds of livelihood, health, and education
needs as they return home,” said Chiles.
USAID also plans to rebuild hospitals and schools, using
earthquake-resistant designs. The new buildings will be furnished
and ready to use.
“USAID will also provide professional training for
new and existing health and education personnel and we will
re-establish systems needed to sustain these facilities in
the long term,” Chiles said.
“Our reconstruction program is added to our five-year,
$1.5 billion commitment to Pakistan to support education,
health, economic growth, and governance programs throughout
the country.”
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School Gone but study goes on
Two girls who survived the Oct. 2005 earthquake that
killed 77,000 people study outside next to their destroyed
school in Langla, a village perched above the Jhelum
River in Pakistani Kashmir. U.S. assistance is helping
rebuild the village homes after people spent the winter
in emergency tents.
Masako Imaoka, USAID
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Horn of Africa Receives $110M Food Aid in Growing Emergency
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A food warehouse in Wajir, Kenya, receives U.S. food
aid for drought victims.
USAF Maj. Timothy Woller |
USAID is providing $110 million in additional emergency food
aid to the Horn of Africa as warnings mount that the region
is facing serious shortages because of a prolonged drought.
Drought is not new to the Horn, where in any given year
tens of millions of people are vulnerable even to the smallest
climatic shocks. But the widespread failure of rains in portions
of Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia this year means that people
who normally migrate to areas where rains are good have no
place to go to find water and forage.
“Numerous prefamine indicators have been reported,
including widespread livestock deaths, culling of young animals
to protect breeding animals, distress migration, increased
animal and human disease, and high acute malnutrition rates,”
the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) reported.
Some 30 to 50 percent of livestock in the region have reportedly
died. Food prices have skyrocketed throughout the region,
while livestock values have decreased dramatically. Malnutrition
rates are hovering around 30 percent—well above the 15
percent at which experts begin referring to the situation
as an emergency. The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) estimates
that more than 5 million people in this region are close to
starving.
“The real epicenter of the current crisis is northeast
Kenya, southeast Ethiopia, and southern Somalia,” said
Nancy Estes, director of Food for Peace in the USAID REDSO
office in Kenya.
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A student in Wajir, northeastern Kenya, receives a
school lunch from the World Food Program.
Nancy Estes, USAID |
The U.S. ambassador to UN food agencies in Rome, Tony Hall,
recently visited communities in northern Kenya and witnessed
first-hand the devastating situation.
USAID’s Title II food assistance to the Horn of Africa
is going through the WFP and NGOs. A U.S. wheat-for-local-corn
swap in Kenya will fill a local wheat shortage and has allowed
distributions to begin ahead of the arrival of the wheat.
The crisis situation in the Horn of Africa is expected to
continue for the next few months as food shipments and other
aid begin to arrive and are distributed. But development workers
already worry about the next rainy season from March to July.
Kenya’s meteorological service is predicting the rainfall
will not be enough.
“If those rains don’t come,” said Estes,
“then we’re facing a huge international crisis.”
Jonathan Dworken, acting director of USAID’s Office
of Food for Peace, is working to make sure that the U.S. government
is prepared to respond, but he stresses that the current situation
isn’t just another hunger crisis. “The entire way
of life of the people in this region—social, political,
and economic—has been eroded by years of drought, marginalization,
and conflict,” he said. “The situation here has
been described as the collapse of a livelihood system—something
that no amount of food assistance alone can address.
“The combination of desperate poverty and lack of governance
is dangerous to the entire region—and maybe beyond the
region. Somehow we’ve got to find the right resources,
and enough of them, to deal with the long-term issues. Otherwise,
we’ll be struggling to deal with this kind of humanitarian
crisis, and worse, at shorter and shorter intervals.”
Bush Asks $23.7B Foreign Aid in ‘07
A number of Agency staffers have recently signed up for posts
in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Pakistan—critical priority
The Bush administration announced Feb. 8 that the president
will ask Congress for $23.7 billion in fiscal year 2007 for
foreign assistance programs.
USAID would administer about $9.3 billion of those funds
for development and humanitarian aid, an 11 percent increase
from 2006. It would also administer funding allocated throughout
the year by the Millennium Challenge Account and the Global
HIV/AIDS Initiative.
Of USAID’s requested budget of $9.3 billion, the Agency
will directly manage $4 billion, while the rest is managed
with the State Department.
The 2007 USAID request includes
• $1.4 billion for child survival and health
• $1.3 billion for development assistance
• $1.2 billion for Title II Food for Peace
• $350 million for disaster and famine aid
• $50 million for transition initiatives
• $207 million for Andean counter-drug efforts
• $274 million for the Baltics and Eastern Europe
• $441 million for the Freedom Support Act
• $3.2 billion for economic support funds
The Agency would receive $680 million in operating costs.
The Administration is also requesting authority to use up
to 25 percent of the $1.2 billion in food aid to buy food
abroad, close to the hunger zones, to speed delivery, save
lives, and stimulate regional food production.
The overall U.S. foreign aid budget request continues to
focus on the War on Terror, increasing aid to key strategic
states such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sudan, much
of which will be carried out by USAID. Congress approved $20.9
billion for foreign assistance accounts in fiscal year 2006.
The new USAID budget focuses on Africa’s long-term
development by fully funding presidential initiatives such
as the Malaria Initiative, the Initiative to End Hunger in
Africa, the Africa Global Competitiveness Initiative, the
Women’s Justice and Empowerment Initiative, the African
Education Initiative, and the new Development Credit Africa
Housing and Infrastructure Facility.
USAID is also seeking funding to restore foreign service
staff needed to oversee the Agency’s responsibilities,
as well as funds to ensure security of employees and facilities
worldwide.
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