International Rescue Committee (IRC)
News, Photos & Video › Photo Essays

Pakistan

Children at Jalozai Camp in Pakistan study in their tent classroom
A pair of shy young girl students smiles at the camera.
A boy is engaged in class activity at an IRC tent school.
A young girl traces letters in a penmanship class.
Young students enjoy recess at an IRC-run school at the Jalozai Camp.
A student at an IRC-run school at Jalozai Camp plays cricket during recess.
Girl students enjoy recess with their teacher at Jalozai Camp.
The dusty Camp streets are lined with canvas walls, behind which, are tents.
A student peers out of her tent classroom.

Providing stability amid upheaval

Refuge, Pakistan
05.10.2012

More than 5,200 children attend IRC-run schools at the Jalozai camp for those displaced by conflict. The schools provide a stable environment and a routine that helps the children recover from the traumatizing experiences many have faced. Teachers are trained to actively involve students in learning, increasing their self-awareness and confidence.

Launch Slideshow >
WASH, IRC, Education, Students, floods, Pakistan
IRC, Education, Students, floods, Pakistan
IRC, Education, Students, floods, Pakistan
IRC, Education, Students, floods, Pakistan
IRC, Education, Students, floods, Pakistan
IRC, Education, Students, floods, Pakistan
IRC, Education, Students, floods, Pakistan
IRC, Education, Students, floods, Pakistan
IRC, Education, Students, floods, Pakistan

A class in post-flood recovery

Education, Asia, Pakistan
12.05.2011

As many as five thousand schools were damaged or destroyed in Pakistan's record flooding of 2010.  During this past summer, the IRC rehabilitated nine schools in northern Pakistan. We also retrained teachers, and revived Parent Teacher Associations. 

Launch Slideshow >
The people of Shah Wasaye returned to their village in late February. More than six months after the floods, the community is still in ruins.
A resident of the village clears debris from the spot where his house once stood. Flooding destroyed an estimated 1.7 million homes throughout Pakistan.
The IRC's Dr. Abdul Jalil examines patients in the village of Shah Wasaye. Most communities were poor even before the floods struck. Now they are suffering from an upsurge in disease brought on by food shortages, contaminated water and poor hygiene.
Parveen Abro, an IRC nurse, treats a girl from Shah Wasaye. The IRC operates two mobile health teams in Sindh Province that provide services to some 50,000 people.
Some 170,000 flood victims remain in camps for displaced people, according to the United Nations. The number of homeless people is much higher, including those living in tents beside wrecked homes, like this family near Shah Wasaye.
This family built a makeshift structure outside Shah Wasaye. The village's farm land and livestock were destroyed by the flooding.
The IRC has launched a far-reaching project that will rebuild vital infrastructure in hard-hit Sindh Province and help over 150,000 people.
Food shortages are acute in some areas of Sindh Province. The IRC's new aid project will rehabilitate agricultural land and distribute seeds, fertilizers, poultry and livestock.
The IRC supplies drugs and equipment to rural health clinics such as this one in the village of Mianjogoth.
The IRC has installed water tanks, hand pumps and latrines across Sindh Province. In the village of Aitbar Brohi, a girl pumps drinking water from a well.
A boy enjoys a clean shower in the village of Aitbar Brohi.
Cases of diarrhea and scabies have dropped dramatically since the IRC installed a fresh water supply, according to Mohammed Alem, who lives in a tent in Aitbar Brohi.
Much of Pakistan's flood zone is in the same desperate shape as it was six months ago. Although the international aid effort has helped millions of people it is still struggling to catch up to the immense human need.

After the flood

Pakistan
03.22.2011

More than six months on, the humanitarian crisis brought about by the worst flooding in Pakistan’s history is far from over.   The IRC is providing clean water and health care, and helping hard hit communities to rebuild vital infrastructure and kick start their local economies.

Launch Slideshow >
Farmers including Obaid Ullah, 44, (center) happily load their wheat seeds onto a cart to take them to their fields for planting the next day. Failure to plant would mean another year without crops, food and income.
Haji Khan, 50, (right) helps Obaid Ullah (center) load a bag of wheat seeds onto a wheelbarrow. Khan says that he had carefully saved seeds from previous crops, but that they had all washed away in the floods. "These seeds make me very happy," he says.
Loading wheat seeds onto a cart to take to home. The IRC is also providing Khan, Ullah and other farmers in the area with 12,000 bags of fertilizer.
Azra (in red) and her friends watch as their fathers collect the wheat seeds for planting. These seeds will grow into much needed crops that will provide income for many families, Azra says with a hopeful smile.
Obaid Ullah with his wheat seeds.

Race against time

Pakistan
12.06.2010

Farmers in flood ravaged Pakistan are in a race against time to plough fields and sow seeds before the end of the winter planting season.  Failure to plant will mean another year without crops, food and income. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, the IRC is rushing to provide some 3,500 farmers with 300 tons of seeds.

 
Launch Slideshow >
Nowshera, Pakistan: Children try a damaged hand pump in their village.
Nowshera, Pakistan: International Rescue Committee water tanker
Nowshera, Pakistan: Children fill drinking water containers
Nowshera, Pakistan: Three women living in tents
Nowshera, Pakistan: A widow, Tasleem, speaks about her family's hardships
Nowshera, Pakistan: Tamala, a mother of eight, in her temporary kitchen
Nowshera, Pakistan: This girl has not been able to return to school
Nowshera, Pakistan: This boy is suffering from a skin infection after the floods
Nowshera, Pakistan: Two girls collecting water in their village

Pakistan after the floods

Pakistan
11.23.2010

The IRC is providing lifesaving aid to families who lost their homes and livelihoods to the worst flooding in Pakistan’s history.  Although flood waters have receded in the northwestern Nowshera district and other hard-hit areas, the situation remains desperate.

Launch Slideshow >
Men pray in the rubble of their flooded mosque in Swat Valley, Pakistan
A boy plays with a wooden rifle in Swat valley, Pakistan
Men, donkey carry wood on road in Swat Valley, Pakistan cleared by aid workers
Men in Swat Valley, Pakistan work on a water system installed by the IRC
Two villagers sit atop an IRC-built water tank in Swat Valley, Pakistan
Boys in Swat Valley, Pakistan play football in warm clothes from the IRC
A man in Swat Valley, Pakistan works in an IRC-built irrigation canal.
Children play cricket on a rebuilt street: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
A man rides a tractor in northwestern Pakistan
A village elder inspects a new crop of wheat in northwestern Pakistan.
A boy feeds chickens in northwestern Pakistan.
Four village elders in Camp Korona, northwestern Pakistan

Swat after the floods

Pakistan
11.23.2010

The people of Swat Valley have gone through unimaginable suffering in the course of just two years; first when the Pakistani military launched an offensive to drive out Taliban militants from the area and then by the worst floods in Pakistan’s history. The IRC is helping local communities recover and rebuild.

Launch Slideshow >
In the absence of bridges, boats made from inner tubes and bamboo ferry passengers and goods across swollen rivers. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
An old man, made homeless by the floods, collects firewood in Pakistan’s Swat valley. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
Amjad Ali (with his neighbor Muhammad Aqil, right) has been forced to flee twice in little over a year. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
Over one million houses have been destroyed by floodwater, leaving an estimated 8 million people homeless. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
A girl sits by a damaged school in Swat district. As a result of the floods, education will be badly disrupted across Pakistan. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
A communal well filled with thick mud in Mingora. Poor sanitary conditions and a lack of safe drinking water have created the potential for serious outbreaks of disease. To help stop the spread of disease, the IRC is distributing water purification tablets. The next step is to distribute drinking water and clean wells. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
In some areas, the Pakistani army has set up makeshift lifts to ferry people across rivers. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

A flood in the valley

Pakistan
08.25.2010

Already battered by a brutal counter-insurgency war, the people of Pakistan’s Swat Valley are now watching their lives and livelihoods washed away by flood waters.

Photos by Peter Biro/The IRC.

Launch Slideshow >
Two men walk through what was recently a large rice field near Sukkur in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
Two children living in a makeshift camp along a highway bridge in Sukkur, Sindh province. Nearly 20 million people have been affected by the floods, which now cover a fifth of the country. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
People continue to stream into urban centers and camps. These men are packing up their families’ belongings as the flood water is rising in Sindh province. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
An estimated 3.6 million people were homeless in Sindh province alone, with numbers expected to rise in coming days. These girls are sheltering with their families out in the open in Sukkur, Sindh. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
A woman sheltering in a mosque on the outskirts of Sukkur. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

Pakistan floods push South

Pakistan
08.24.2010

The IRC's Peter Biro took these photos in the southernmost province of Sindh, where people continue to stream into urban centers and camps as the flood water rises.

Launch Slideshow >
At least 1,600 people have been killed and a staggering 20 million people have been affected by devastating monsoon rains in Pakistan. Villages, crops, roads and bridges have been washed away by the ongoing deluge. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
A refugee from Afghanistan sits amid the rubble that was formerly his home in the Azakhel camp near the city of Peshawar in Nowshera district, Khyber Pakthunkhwa province. The entire camp, which housed some 30,000 people, was crushed by the water masses when the nearby Kabul River burst its dams. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
<p>Almost all the mud houses at Azakhel camp have been turned into clay mounds and twisted debris.</p> Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
The Afghan refugees have lived at Azakhel for decades after fleeing Soviet occupation and civil war. Now they have once again been forced to flee. Most live nearby, in tents by the side of a busy highway. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
Allah Jan (right) from Azakhel has squatted under a tarpaulin for over two weeks. “The clothes I wear are all that I own,” she said. “The local people here help me with some food, but that is all.” Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
Zubadia Razia, 20, walks through the mud and rubble that was once her home in the devastated Charsadda district. She is looking for a suitcase she kept clothes in, but it is nowhere to be found. Large areas were damaged when three rivers in the district, the Jindi, Kabul and Swat, overflowed. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
In an empty school nearby, desperate villagers await an aid distribution by the International Rescue Committee. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
A displaced Pashtun boy whose house was destroyed in the floods has sought shelter at a public building together with his family. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
Morsalin and his grandson Muaz are among the hundreds who have found temporary shelter in a school building in Charsadda. “I'm very old and remember the floods in 1955,” 80-year-old Morsalin said. “But this is much, much worse.” Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
A boy and his young sister await the distribution of aid. The United Nations has warned that a shortage of aid money is threatening six million people, the majority of them children and infants, with potentially lethal diseases carried by contaminated water. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
Hygiene supplies are offloaded for distribution to hundreds of stranded people in Charsadda. As a first step to thwart the spread of disease, my IRC colleagues distribute water purification tablets. The next step will be to bring clean water via tanker trucks to the devastated communities. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
Flood victims line up to receive hygiene supplies. The lack of soap, chlorine tablets and disinfectants, coupled with contaminated water and the lack of latrines, poses a serious health risk. Diarrhea and skin disease have already started to spread with at least one confirmed case of cholera in northwestern Pakistan. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
A woman's identification is verified at a relief distribution site. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.
Once this emergency phase is over, the more difficult task of rebuilding shattered communities starts. “The situation is desperate,” the IRC’s Pakistan director Tammy Hasselfeld says. “It will take a very long time and increased support from the outside world to help people recover from this catastrophe.” Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

Pakistan flood crisis

Pakistan
08.23.2010

The International Rescue Commitee is delivering aid to victims of the worst flooding in Pakistan’s history and working to thwart outbreaks of waterborne disease.  Photos by Peter Biro/The IRC.

Launch Slideshow >
<p>The International Rescue Committee is on the ground providing aid to victims of the worst flooding in Pakistan&rsquo;s modern history. At least 1,600 people have been killed and a staggering 20 million people have been affected by the devastating monsoon rains. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)</p>
<p>A refugee from Afghanistan sits amid the rubble that was formerly his home in the Azakhel camp near the city of Peshawar in Nowshera district. The entire camp was crushed by the water masses when the nearby Kabul River burst its dams. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)</p>
<p>Almost all the mud houses at Azakhel camp have been turned into clay mounds and twisted debris. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)</p>
<p>The Afghan refugees have lived at Azakhel for more than three decades. Now they have once again been forced to flee. Most live nearby, in tents by the side of a busy highway. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)</p>
<p>Allah Jan (right) from Azakhel has squatted under a tarpaulin for over two weeks. &ldquo;The clothes I wear are all that I own,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The local people here help me with some food, but that is all.&rdquo; (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)</p>
<p>In the first phase of a large aid effort, the IRC is going to distribute plastic sheeting for shelter, blankets, bed nets to prevent malaria, hygiene material, water purification tablets and other essential material. &ldquo;We need all that we can get,&rdquo; this man said. (Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)</p>

Pakistan: Visiting communities ravaged by the floods

Pakistan
08.12.2010

The IRC is providing aid to victims of the worst flooding in Pakistan’s modern history. As many as 20 million people have been affected by the devastating monsoon rains. Photos: Peter Biro/The IRC

Launch Slideshow >