This fall, a team of staff - including International Program Coordinator, Joe Harrison - traveled to Pakistan to visit local health care partners. Much of the trip was an eye-opening experience for Harrison, but one particular girl’s story will always remain in his memory. He shares his uplifting reflection below:

At just one year old, Ain-Ul-Haya was one of the millions severely injured when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake decimated northern Pakistan in 2005, killing an estimated 80,000 people.

From the Newspaper | Tariq Naqash

MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 7: As the entire nation commemorated the 7th anniversary of the October 2005 earthquake on Monday, most of the survivors were still concerned about the pledged reconstruction work, which is still not completed.

Like an annual ritual, government functionaries started bragging about their achievements and future plans regarding the reconstruction program, soon after the onset of October, notwithstanding a widely known bitter reality – acute scarcity of cash flow.

British support helps rebuild schools and bridges in northen Pakistan

October 2012 marks seven years since the devastating 7.6 magnitude earthquake which shook northern Pakistan at 8.50 am on 8 October 2005.

More than 73,000 people were killed, including 850 teachers and 18,000 students. Another 128,000 people were injured and 3.5 million left homeless. Some villages lost up to a quarter of their residents.

From the Newspaper | Intikhab Amir | 29th July, 2012

PESHAWAR, July 28: A number of 2,500 ongoing development projects in the 2005 earthquake-affected areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are likely to experience stoppage of work in the financial year 2012-13 due to lack of funding, according to official sources.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has curtailed its work plan 2012-13 for the earthquake-hit areas’ reconstruction and rehabilitation by around 50 per cent and left 1,300 projects out due to unavailability of funds, the relevant officials told Dawn on Saturday.

By A. Sami Malik

GARI HABIBULLAH, Pakistan, 22 June 2012 – Eleven-year-old Khadija Riaz recalls the earthquake that devastated north-western Pakistan in 2005. She was then a second grade student in the mosque school of Paksayr Village, not far from the town of Gari Habibullah in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

“When the earthquake hit, we were sitting in the open behind the mosque – there was no school in our village. The school in Gari Habibullah was completely destroyed. My cousin Sadia died in it. My house, and many other houses in our village, collapsed,” she said.

Bagh, June, 13, 2012 - U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter reiterated the U.S. government's support for the development of Pakistan while visiting two schools built in Arja community, Bagh District with U.S. funding. These two schools are among 51 education and health facilities that have been constructed in the Bagh District of Azat Jammu and Kashmir and Mansehra District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help the area recover from the devastating 2005 earthquake.

The Pakistan Earthquake: Addressing Challenges, Creating Opportunities

Overview

Abstract

I. Overview: Recovery Framework