Page 22 - DIVA_No.23_2006

Local trucks form the backbone of IOM's earthquake relief logistics in Pakistan.
(Photo: Warrick Page / (0 TOM, 2005)
As of 9 While TOM cluster coordinators The equipment, which was But the complex logistics behind
in Islamabad, Muzaffarabad, flown into Islamabad's Chaklala the Haveli operation seem
November, IOM Mansehra, Bagh, Balakot and airbase from Afghanistan aboard almost tame compared with the
deliveries to Batagram, including staff sec- giant Antonov cargo planes, was ongoing Oper-ation Winter Race
onded from the UK Department loaded onto TOM trucks and - a programme that airlifts small
Pakistan earth- for International Development moved to a Pakistan army base TOM, Islamic Relief and TFRC
quake victims (DFTD) and the International in the town of Forward Kahuta. teams by helicopter into isolated
Federation of Red Cross and Red villages to assess earthquake
included Crescent Societies (TFRC), British airforce Chinook heli- damage and deliver shelter
4,369 tents, 600 crunch the numbers and advise copters coordinated by the UN repair kits to homeless families.
the government and donors, Joint Logistics Cell (UNJLC)
shelter repair kits, TOM operations staff use their then airlifted the 200 kg tents The programme, which is
21,000 blankets, output to target TOM interven- from the base to a military heli- focused on the Neelum valley
tions. pad on the Haji Pir pass at just close to Muzaffarabad, uses self-
2,700 mattresses over 5,000 ft. for distribution in sufficient five-person teams sup-
and "From the outset we focused on villages in the Bedhi and Mota ported by helicopters coordinat-
relatively inaccessible areas not valleys. ed by UNJLC and UN
6,100 plastic yet reached by other agencies or Humanitarian Air Services
sheets. it also the military - initially Allai in "People in the valleys on the far (UNHAS).
Batagram district and Haveli in side of the pass had no help up to
provided over 300 Bagh. We're now also focusing that point and snow cuts road The teams, which include men,
trucks to partner on the Neelum valley out of access to the area until April," women and shelter construction
Muzaffarabad and the Kaghan says Islamic Relief field coordi- specialists, go house to house to
agencies inclu- valley out of Balakot," explains nator, Arshad Rashid, who assess damage and identify vul-
ding UNICEF Steven Lennon. organized food distributions in nerable people. They then use
the area before the earthquake. satellite phones to call in heli-
UNHCR, Islamic IOM moved into Haveli, a Islamic Relief and TOM four- copter airlifts of shelter repair
Relief, World remote sub-division of Bagh dis- wheel drive jeeps picked up the kits.
trict close to the Line of Control tents from the Haji Pir helipad to
Vision, Oxfam, dividing Pakistani and Indian- move them as close as they Items in the locally procured
Samaritan's Purse administered Kashmir, with part- could to the rubble-strewn vil- kits, which are stockpiled in for-
ner agency Islamic Relief to dis- lages in the valleys. In the vil- ward bases at Muzaffarabad and
and JEN. tribute 500 ten-person arch tents, lages, they were distributed to Batagram, include corrugated
500 heaters, 500 mattresses, homeless families previously galvanized iron sheeting, plastic
5,000 blankets and 120 camp identified by Islamic Relief and sheeting, hammers, nails, pick-
beds donated by the Dutch mili- the Pakistan military. axes, saws, wire, buckets, and
tary.
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