Between October 2022 and January 2023, Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation (BTCF) partnered with five organizations (We Care Foundation, Islamic Relief, Shirkat Gah Women's Resource Centre, Al-Madinah Islamic Research Centre (MIRC), and Camillian Disaster Service International (CADIS)) to provide much-needed relief materials to flood survivors in the Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces of Pakistan. The interventions benefited a total of 31,000 families (corresponding to around 228,000 individuals) with assistance including packages of flour, rice, lentils, chickpeas, oil, sugar, tea, salt, mosquito repellent, mosquito nets, and water purification tablets, as well as hygiene kits and ecoblankets made from recycled PET. Relief efforts included the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Naseerabad, Jafferabad, and Sohbat Pur districts of Balochistan Province, and Shaheed Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad, Thatta, Sujawal, Qamber Shadadkot, Dadu, Naushahro Feroze, Khairpur, Qambar, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Larkana, and Nawab Shah districts of Sindh Province.
The distributions focused on especially vulnerable populations, including female headed households,
LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, religiously disadvantaged groups, and remote villages. Many aid recipients expressed that this was the first time they received any assistance since the start of the flooding, and the first time in many months that they were able to feed their children a proper meal. Recipients especially appreciated the respectful way in which the distributions were conducted, saying that in the past, they had not felt that they had been treated as valued human beings.
One recipient said that their houses and all their belongings had been washed away by the flood, and without identity documents, it had been difficult to obtain relief supplies. He expressed his gratitude to BTCF and partners for remembering them in their plight.
Others said that they had felt forgotten, as if no one cared about their suffering after the flooding. Finally, there were people who provided not only material relief, but also respectful, loving care.
In many districts, the large number of people in need would easily have overwhelmed distribution sites. To avoid large crowds, relief workers in the Shaheed Benazirabad District,
Sindh Province, distributed vouchers during the day and held distributions at night. In some areas, assessment visits to prepare for the distributions required relief workers to wade through knee-high flood waters.
BTCF is very grateful to all partner organizations for overcoming countless logistical challenges and successfully distributing the relief aid, as well as to Airlink, which provided invaluable assistance in transporting relief materials into Pakistan.
The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation is a global non-profit humanitarian organization founded in 1966 by Buddhist nun Dharma Master Cheng Yen. Its missions of medicine, charity, education, and humanistic culture have brought relief to 128 countries. The heart of Tzu Chi is embedded in its name: in Chinese, “Tzu” means compassion and “Chi” relief, to relieve the suffering of those in need while creating a better world for all through compassion, love and hope. For more information, visit tzuchi.us.
For additional information and media inquiries, please write to Johan Alwall, Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, johan.alwall@us.tzuchi.org.
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