PAKISTAN – IOM Rushes Emergency Shelter to Southern Sindh to Meet Growing Needs - With an estimated one million people uprooted by the latest flooding in southern Sindh, IOM has delivered 500 emergency shelter kits to the government for distribution in Thatta district.
“The needs are huge and thousands of families in Thatta are still camped out under open skies, wherever they can find a dry spot”, says IOM Emergency Response Manager Brian Kelly.
IOM has already distributed 6,000 of the kits, each of which contains two 4 x 5 metre plastic sheets, rope, two blankets, a jerry can, a bucket and a kitchen set, to flood-affected families in Sindh.
It is currently shipping a further 3,000 kits to Thatta district, where Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is setting up a displacement camp for flood victims.
On Saturday, IOM and local NGO partners distributed 1,108 of the kits to displaced families in Sukkur district, in northern Sindh.
The latest mass displacements in Sindh follow a major breach of flood defences near the town of Sarjani, south of the Kotri barrage, last week. On Sunday advancing floodwaters also entered the district of Dadu, forcing thousands more to flee and leaving an estimated 40,000 people stranded in 40 outlying villages.
They bring the total number of people directly affected by the floods to 17.6 million, with 1.2 million homes damaged or destroyed across an area of 160,000 km2, according to the NDMA.
The Emergency Shelter Cluster of 40 aid agencies working with the NDMA to provide emergency shelter and non-food relief items, which is coordinated by IOM, has already provided shelter for some 1.13 million flood victims.
Shelter materials for another 2.5 million people are currently in the cluster’s procurement pipeline. But there are not enough tents or plastic sheets available in Pakistan to meet the vast need, and shipping them in from outside the country takes time.
“IOM is now regularly acting as consignee for incoming aid flights in Islamabad, Karachi and Multan and trucking the aid to the worst hit areas of Punjab and Sindh. But the needs are huge and still growing”, says IOM Regional Representative for West and Central Asia Hassan Abdel Moneim Mostafa.
“IOM and our Shelter Cluster partners are racing to boost our capacity to deliver. But as the number of flood-affected families who need our help grows, so does our need for funding”, he adds.
For additional information please contact IOM Islamabad. Saleem Rehmat, Tel. +92.3008560341. Email: srehmat@iom.int or Eliane Engeler, Tel. +92.300 852 6357. Email: engeler.iom@gmail.com
For more information on IOM’s activities in Pakistan, to download the IOM Appeal or to donate to IOM’s flood response, please go to: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pakistan.
For information on the Emergency Shelter Cluster, please go to: https://sites.google.com/site/shelterpak2010/.
HAITI - IOM Launches Major Hurricane Season Awareness Campaign by Radio and SMS - The International Organization for Migration and Digicel are launching a major public awareness campaign in Haiti using hundreds of thousands of SMS messages to advise vulnerable Haitians on ways to protect themselves during the hurricane season.
IOM is also launching a daily radio show that will focus on disaster risk reduction during hurricane season.
Digicel is Haiti’s largest cell phone carrier and the SMS campaign is expected to reach a majority of the country’s mobile phone users.
For the 1.5 million Haitians made homeless by the 12 January earthquake, the hurricane season marks a period of great danger. Gusting winds exceeding 100 mph can make short work of tents and shelters. Flash-flooding and landslides represent an ever present and deadly risk for camp dwellers.
“This campaign shows that technology has an important role to play when it complements solid humanitarian action on the ground”, said Luca Dall'Oglio, Chief of Mission for Haiti.
“Digicel’s primary concern is the safety and welfare of the Haitian people”, Said Digicel Haiti CEO, Maarten Boute. “Every year, Digicel makes significant investments in preparing the Haitian community for expected hurricanes. This year, we are delighted to partner with IOM to launch this hurricane preparedness campaign in order to keep the population informed and ready”.
The Digicel SMS campaign is an expansion of efforts already underway between the Haitian Red Cross and another cell phone carrier. Both campaigns use messages approved by the government’s Directorate for Civil Protection (Direction de la Protection Civile – DPC) in collaboration with the Haitian Red Cross. These messages will be sent to millions of Digicel subscribers over the coming weeks.
The campaign will deliver clear and simple information about staying safe during hurricanes and avoiding floods and landslides. Meteorologists have warned of a particularly dangerous Atlantic hurricane season with as many as 8-12 hurricanes expected.
The campaign will supplement Digicel’s existing special 4636 short code for Hurricane season awareness
The SMS campaign will take place across the country with messages sent in Creole to all Digicel phone subscribers in specific geographic areas. Other cellular carriers are participating in a parallel SMS exercise with the Haitian Red Cross and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
For the radio show, an outside broadcast van will travel to a different IDP camp every day giving the earthquake affected population a unique opportunity to express itself on national radio about its safety concerns.
This special programme is a joint production between IOM and Cité Soleil’s community station, Radio Boukman. It will be broadcast nationally between 5 and 6 pm by the Radio Tele Ginen network
IOM and Digicel are also collaborating on a graphic newspaper, Chimen Lakay (There’s No Place like Home). The newspaper aims to both entertain and inform camp dwellers. This week’s edition contains a special poster on precautions to be taken during the summer rainy season.
For more information or to set up interviews, please contact Leonard Doyle, IOM Media and Communications Haiti, Tel + 509 3702 5066, Email: Ldoyle@iom.int
UNITED STATES – Youth From Around the World to Award PLURAL+ Video on Intercultural Dialogue - IOM and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAoC) are calling on youth from all over the world to vote before November 1, 2010 for their favourite video from the PLURAL+ 2010 Youth Video Festival finalist entries.
Youth from around the world are invited to visit the PLURAL+ website at www.unaoc.org/pluralplus for information on how to watch the videos and vote for the Youth Audience Award.
The participating videos express young people’s thoughts, experiences, questions and suggestions on migration, diversity, integration, identity and social inclusion, highlighting their realities as well as ideas on developing a peaceful coexistence in diverse cultural and religious contexts.
The aim of PLURAL+ is to ensure youth engagement in these important
issues both at local and global levels by mainstreaming their
voices through a variety of media platforms and distribution
networks (broadcast, video festivals, conferences, events,
Internet, DVD) around the world.
“PLURAL+ participation demonstrates how young people across the
world are willing to creatively engage in complex social issues
such as migration and cultural inclusiveness”, said Marc Scheuer,
Director of the UN Alliance of Civilizations.
The invitation for this new PLURAL + Youth Audience Award was announced by the UNAoC and IOM on the occasion of the United Nations International Year of Youth on Dialogue and Mutual Understanding launched last August 12th by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, in the General Assembly Hall at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The winner of the PLURAL+ Youth Audience Award will be announced on November 12, 2010 at the Paley Center for Media in New York.
In addition, all youth participants selecting their favourite video will automatically enter in a drawing with the opportunity of winning a Flip camera. For details and information please go to the PLURAL + website.
For additional information, please contact Jordi Torrent at UNAOC, Email plural@unaoc.org or Elif Zeybel at IOM New York, Email ezeybel@iom.int
