Hussainabad Flood Relief

Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan :

We first started working in Pakistan in 2010 when much of the country was affected by the worst flooding in living memory. Approximately one fifth of the country was underwater and around 20 million people were directly affected, 2,000 of them losing their lives. Despite a huge national and international relief effort, many remote towns and villages remained cut off.

Redspokes’ guide, Mr Arman, alerted us to the situation in his own village where saturated ground had caused a landslide that ripped through the village. Houses and surrounding fields had been destroyed and 400 people (50 families) had been displaced to temporary tents on the edge of the village. Fears of further land fall were preventing people from returning to the homes that were left intact.

Our emergency appeal raised £4,120 (over £5,200 with Gift Aid) in less than 2 months. This amazing generosity on our donors part allowed us to work alongside the Aga Khan Foundation (the only other NGO working in the region) and a locally organised village Disaster Committee to rebuild housing on safer ground elsewhere in the village.

By Spring of the following year all 50 families had been rehoused in either new or restored homes. In 2013, Dermot returned to the village for the first time with a group of cyclists. The warmth and generosity of the welcome they were given (captured in part in the video below) inspired us to go on and develop further programmes based in this remote and beautiful part of the world.

We would like to thank all the village Disaster Committee again, in particular Mr Muhammad Ali for co-ordinating the LVCF-sponsored work teams, and for acting alongside Mr Arman as our main liaison man during this project.