Pakistan: our response to the emergency

In recent months, Pakistan has been hit by floods that have claimed many lives and destroyed much infrastructure. The Emergency Coordination of the Focolare Movement, through AMU (Action for a United World) and AFN (Action New Families), took immediate action to ensure initial assistance and basic needs were met.

The floods’ destructive force caused extensive damage to communities in Pakistan affected, which began to be unleashed on this territory as early as mid-June 2022, bringing a third of the country to its knees.

Many consequences still affect the population today. For this reason, the Emergency Coordination of the Focolare Movement, with AMU and AFN, upon learning of the emergency, launched a fundraiser to support the provision of food parcels, clothing and sanitary products to about 500 families in the localities of Nowshera in northern Pakistan; Tando-Alla-Yar and Kotri in Sindh; Sangar in southern Pakistan; and other localities still being assessed.

Many have mobilised to respond to initial requests for help and to assess the most urgent needs on the ground. In the face of the ever-increasing number of displaced people, aid shipments were organised in the first few weeks and continue to this day. Despite precarious transportation, most of these families have already been reached.

In addition, some members of the Focolare Movement on the ground are directly involved not only in the preparation and distribution of parcels, but also in providing medical care for those who need treatment and medicine to fight primarily typhoid, dengue, cholera and malaria.

“On October 16, 2022, we went to a village in Haji Hafiz Shah Goth, about an hour’s drive from the city of Kotri, and set up a medical camp there,” says Fabian Clive, a member of the Focolare community in Karachi.

“The doctors there examined 200 people including children, women and men. Most people do not have the opportunity to have regular medical check-ups, either because they are quite expensive or because they do not have access to the city.

“Our goal is to set up medical camps in the different areas of Sindh that have not yet had this kind of assistance. There is a widespread call to responsibility and a great willingness to make a contribution.”

The situation remains alarming even some weeks later. As water levels drop, the enormous severity of the devastation, compounded by malnutrition and disease, has emerged.

The needs of the communities are increasing, changing every day. So carrying out response actions, continuing to embrace this country, is a shared goal.

If you too would like to contribute to the Focolare Movement’s Emergency Coordination for Pakistan fundraiser, you can donate at the following:

Maria Grazia Berretta