Dear [[FirstName]],
The 2005 earthquake in Pakistan was one of the deadliest quakes in modern times. It left 80,000 people dead, 70,000 injured, and more than 3.3 million homeless. Eighteen months later, most survivors have returned to their villages and are trying to rebuild their lives. But their lives are far from normal.
Women who lost family members in the disaster are considered particularly vulnerable. Most are illiterate, which inhibits their capacity to function on a day-to-day basis and their ability to earn a living. To bolster their confidence and create economic opportunities, IMC initiated a program in January 2007 to teach women basic literacy and math skills. Women will also be taught tailoring and embroidery, which will put them on a path to resuscitating their livelihoods.
The story of Pakistan’s earthquake may have disappeared from the headlines, but the hardships that it inflicted on the people who lived through it have not. With your support, IMC can continue to help these communities work toward health, happiness, and productivity. Sincerely, Jehangir Ali Khan
Jehangir Ali Khan
IMC Country Director, Pakistan
 Hope in a henhouse
Daud Akhmadov lost his wife and his only child in the bombing in 1999 in Grozny, the capital of the Chechen republic. He now lives alone among hundreds of other displaced people in a settlement on the Chechen border, where the unemployment rate is as high as 70 percent. Keen to create economic opportunities for settlers like Akhmadov, IMC polled the community about what they would like to do. The verdict? Run a henhouse. Read more
 Earthquake update: Providing women with the tools for recovery
Eighteen months after a 7.6 earthquake rocked Pakistan, survivors are still struggling to reassemble their lives. For the thousands of women who lost male relatives—who were often the family’s sole providers—the return to normalcy is particularly tough. In January, IMC launched a program that will help lead them toward financial stability. Read more
 Homeward bound?
More than 1.6 million Ugandans have been driven from their homes during the country’s two-decades-old guerilla war. Now some of those people are trading the relative security of the IDP camps for a taste of the village life they used to know. They are abandoning the main camps and erecting smaller temporary settlements—despite the ongoing threat to their security posed by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Read more
Leading the way on mental health initiatives
In late February, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, a policy forum which fosters cooperation among relief agencies, introduced a set of guidelines for responding to the most urgent mental health and psychosocial needs of communities in emergency situations. The ratification of the guidelines is a watershed in the international aid world: they present a global consensus on how to approach mental health in emergency situations, an area that has historically been one of the more overlooked areas of humanitarian assistance. IMC played a significant role in developing these guidelines, particularly in regard to dealing with serious mental disorders and working with traditional healers.
Later this month, Dr. Lynne Jones, who leads IMC’s mental health program development, will talk about doing therapeutic work in non-Western cultures at the Norwegian Councils for Mental Health’s conference, “Mental Health in Humanitarian Settings.” The conference, to be held in Oslo on April 26 and 27, will focus on approaches to mental health across cultural boundaries. Jones has 14 years of experience working in disaster and conflict zones including Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and West Africa. |
|
