Letter from Pakistan

You would have most likely seen the devastated that Pakistan is going through at the moment. They are experiencing what is being described as the “flood of the century”, with one-fifth of the country currently under water and over 15 million people affected, half of whom are children in critical need of help. UNICEF is on the ground working tirelessly to provide emergency life-saving provisions to the millions of children, having been in Pakistan since 1948.

It is hard to understand what the people of Pakistan are going through. This week we received this letter from UNICEF Pakistan. We found it very compelling, because it provided some ‘chapter and verse’ about life in Pakistan. Let us know what you think, or if you know anyone in Pakistan.

UNICEF NZ Communications team.

Dear Dennis,

As you know, the situation here in Pakistan is desperate. Those of us with decades of emergency experience have never seen anything like than devastation this flooding has caused. Mothers have walked through mud and water for kilometres, fleeing from or lost or damaged homes with nothing but a baby clinging to their backs, pulling along children by each hand. Everyone is desperately thirsty in high beat and humidity, but there is only heavily contaminated water around them.

On behalf of the children of Pakistan, I would like to thank UNICEF for your much needed support thus far. We have vaccinated children against polio (342,200) and measles (252,000) delivered hygiene kits to 7000 families and are reaching some 1.5 million every day with clean water; we have distributed 3 millions of purification tablets to other families. But though we have received generous and rapid contributions from the people of New Zealand, we are still in need of more funds, as the crisis worsens, and the numbers affected mount.

The tragedy that is unfolding now, especially for small children, is a terrible descent into diarrhoea, dehydration and death. For those that survive, malnutrition is ever more likely.

The people of New Zealand have always been so generous! Please convey to them that the scale and duration of this disaster is terrifying. While in the north there was a torrential, rapid tsunami-like rush of water, in the south it is a slow but inexorable flood that keeps spreading. Wherever people can find a bit of high ground, they are huddled together under bits of cloth and plastic.

UNICEF is on the ground in the worst affected areas, working with partners, leading the water sanitation, nutritional, child protection and emergency education responses. Aid is now getting through to even more remote places.

We urge the people of New Zealand to do what you can to help UNICEF protect the children of Pakistan.  We must ensure that the floods that damaged or destroyed their homes, schools and clinics do not also destroy children’s futures.

Warmest thanks.
Karen R. Allen
UNICEF Deputy Representative, Pakistan

Wondering how you can help?
Donate to UNICEF NZ’s Pakistan Emergency Appeal
Fundraise for Pakistan