Phase I: Emergency Response

November 2007 - Two years after the October 8, 2005 earthquake, livelihood rehabilitation is still under way. The 7.6 magnitude earthquake took the lives of more than 73,000 people and left 3 million people homeless. In response, Relief International (RI) raised $1,179,000 in private funds to help with relief and rehabilitation efforts and has garnered more than $12 million dollars in matching funds for livelihoods, health, infrastructure, and shelter reconstruction programs. While initial programs in the wake of the disaster concentrated on the

HATTIAN, 27 November 2007 (IRIN) - Quake victims who once lived along the line of control (LoC) separating Pakistani- and Indian-administered Kashmir - displaced first by political tension and again by the 2005 earthquake - have appealed to the government for assistance.

"We need land. We need help too," Mohammad Din, a 39-year-old father of six told IRIN outside his tent at the Hattian displaced persons camp, home to 38 families, just a stone's throw from the Jheleem river and about 40km east of Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

(Extract)

Bangladesh

Several thousand people were killed when Cyclone Sidr hit the southern coast of Bangladesh on Nov. 15. Needs among survivors are urgent for food, shelter, and medicine.

Church World Service is supporting the efforts of partners in providing rice, pulses (e.g., lentils, beans), salt, oil, and rehydration salts for more than 35,500 people, focusing on the most vulnerable people--widows, children, elderly and disabled people, and those without land.

Prior to the storm, long-time CWS partner the Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB) reported

KABUL, 21 November 2007 (IRIN) - Over 100,000 Afghans living and working in Pakistan without refugee cards will not be "unilaterally and hastily" deported to Afghanistan, a senior Pakistani official said at the end of a tripartite meeting of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan on 21 November in Kabul.

Of the estimated 300,000 Afghans who could not get a refugee identity card through a Pakistan government registration process in late 2006, about 200,000 have already returned to Afghanistan,

GA/10660

Sixty-second General Assembly
Plenary
53rd & 54th Meetings (AM & PM)

Chernobyl Disaster, Aid to Rwanda Genocide Survivors Also Discussed; Adopts Resolution on Overview of United Nations Climate Change Activities

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, November 16 (UNHCR) - As a girl, Khadra Mohammed listened to her father's stories about Somalia before he fled the Mohamed Siad Barre regime for the United Arab Emirates. As a teenager, she volunteered to help Afghan refugees in Pakistan. As executive director of the Pittsburgh Refugee Centre in the United States, she recently returned to the Afghan refugee camps to present a book she wrote about refugee girls. She discussed her experience with UNHCR Senior Regional Public Information Officer Vivian Tan. Excerpts from the interview:

How did you first get involved in

The Pakistan Red Crescent responding to the needs of storm/flood-affected people of Sindh and Balochistan Wednesday dispatched relief items and medicines besides directions to the provincial branches to actively respond to the calamities. Pakistan Red Crescent Society Chairman Saeed Ahmad Qureshi expressing deep sorrow over the loss of lives in the storm-hit areas said that PRCS is fully alive to the needs of the victims and will stand with them in this hour of need. He said that the Pakistan Red Crescent Society National Headquarters has also sent assessment

Note: Map production date estimated.
Note: Districts belong to Balkh province are not entered in NADRA db (Registration db), while a total of 2,471 individuals (416 families) have returned to Balkh province from 15 Apr - end Oct 07.