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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.

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<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

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<p>The ethnic Nepalese in Bhutan were prohibited from roaming around freely. The government of Bhutan forced all Nepali speaking people to carry citizenship cards with them when they were outside of their homes. The authorities had checkpoints and if any Nepali speaking Southern Bhutanese were found without their citizenship cards they were interrogated and could be held for days. Photo: Misha Cohen/The IRC</p>
<p>Uma attends to a chili plant she planted on her fire escape. &ldquo;I love plants. I was raised on a farm. My father was a wealthy man with a lot of land, but that was taken from us by the Bhutanese government,&rdquo; says Uma. &ldquo;When I was younger my father gave me one orange tree from our orchard, and I loved that one. Now whenever I peel the skin of an orange I recall my plant and I feel sad.&rdquo; Photo: Misha Cohen/The IRC</p>
<p>Kushal shows off his Michael Jackson dance moves, which he learned in Nepal when he and his uncle, Om Kanta, would spend hours watching Jackson&rsquo;s music videos and studying his style. In Bhutan the government restricted access to outside media and suppressed exposure to foreign culture. The Internet and television were banned until 1998. In Nepal, the government did not have tight restrictions on media, so they were exposed to American pop stars such as Jackson. Photo: Misha Cohen/The IRC</p>
<p>Shuffling through the dresser drawers, Pratiksha found a sticker that she places on her forehead in the style of a vermillion tikka, the red paste that Nepali women wear to symbolize that they are married. In Bhutan it was a violation of the government&rsquo;s &ldquo;One Nation One People&quot; policy for women of Nepali descent to wear tikkas. Photo: Misha Cohen/The IRC</p>
<p>&ldquo;My classmates told me, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re a girl. You&rsquo;re a girl,&rsquo;&rdquo; says Kushal, referring to the small gold hoop earrings that he used to wear in both ears. Chet Nath and Uma gave him the jewelry on his first birthday. For Bhutanese of Nepali descent it is customary to give young boys gold earrings that they wear until they near their teenage years. After being teased by the other children in his Head Start program about his earrings, Kushal insisted that his parents take them out. &ldquo;I was surprised when Kushal said he wanted to take out his earnings. In our culture we don&rsquo;t distinguish the dress between boys and girls like they do here in America,&rdquo; says Uma. Photo: Misha Cohen/The IRC</p>
<p>&ldquo;I have never squeezed my husband in public before,&rdquo; Uma says, standing at the pier in front of the Statue of Liberty. The couple spent a day off together &ndash; the first in months since their schedules began filling up with work and family responsibilities &ndash; at Battery Park and riding the Staten Island Ferry. This is a favorite activity for the couple because they can look out onto the ocean, something they had never done before resettling in America. &ldquo;I had never seen the ocean, I had just read about it. In school, my teachers told me that it was a large mass of water, so I was crazy to see it,&rdquo; says Uma. Photo: Misha Cohen/The IRC</p>
<p>On August 30 the family celebrated Teez, a Nepali holiday in which all of the women go back to their parents&rsquo; home to receive blessings from their elders. Chet Nath and Uma invited Chet Nath&rsquo;s cousin and another friend who don&rsquo;t have other family in New York to join them for a special meal. Chet Nath was unable to share the celebration with any of his four sisters, though. &quot;I really feel sad,&rdquo; says Chet Nath. &ldquo;Every daughter would feel sick if they missed Teez because it&rsquo;s when the whole family is together again. Because of the bad policies of the Bhutanese government our family is scattered around the globe making it virtually impossible to meet again. Now we are in 5 different countries.&rdquo; Photo: Misha Cohen/The IRC</p>
<p>On September 9, Uma took Kushal to his first day of kindergarten, just a few blocks from their home. &ldquo;The teachers here seem very serious and have many teaching materials that engage all of the senses. I feel that Kushal will get a good education,&rdquo; says Chet Nath. Pratiksha was not enrolled in the same school because of lack of space. Instead she has to catch a bus outside Kushal&rsquo;s school that takes her to her elementary school and drops her off again an hour after Kushal&rsquo;s classes let out. Photo: Misha Cohen/The IRC</p>

Customs new and old

United States, US - New York, NY
06.22.2010

Since their arrival in the United States, the Timsina family is able to enjoy freedoms that were stripped from them in Bhutan. They have also adapted to different customs, while retaining traditions from home.
 

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<p>I meet Tigist in her village in Benishangul-Gumuz, a remote region about 700 km west of Ethiopia&#39;s capital, Addis Ababa. &nbsp;Tigist&rsquo;s father, Bogale Getahun, a security guard, told me he and his wife knew something was wrong with their daughter when she was just seven months old. &ldquo;There was this strange spot in her eyes. We took her to see a doctor, and he told us she needed surgery in Addis Ababa. But we couldn&rsquo;t afford it.&quot;</p>
<p>Tigist tentatively follows her older brother through the village. Children who cannot see become especially dependent on other people. They are also more likely to become malnourished and sick, and to die at an early age.&nbsp;That&rsquo;s why the IRC has been traveling to impoverished communities around Ethiopia to find children with cataracts and help them.</p>
<p>Fortunately, when I examined Tigist, I found that her cataracts could still be operated on. I brought the little girl and her father to Addis Ababa for the procedure. &nbsp;</p>
<p>The day before the surgery, Tigist is examined to determine the kind of anesthesia the doctors will use. The nurse said that Tigist is underweight for a girl her age.</p>
<p>Tigist rests in her father&#39;s arms after the surgery. Soon she will be able to remove her bandages and start exploring her world with her own eyes.</p>
<p>I walk with Tigist around the hospital as she experiments with her new-found sight. The little girl shrieked in joyful surprise when she saw her own shadow for the first time.</p>
<p>Tigist plays with a little boy named Beshir, who also had successful eye surgery though the IRC in Addis Ababa.</p>
<p>Less than a week after her operation Tigist was back home and playing with her friends. Her parents were overwhelmed by their daughter&#39; s happiness and new-found independence. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t wait for her to start school next year,&rdquo; Bogale said.</p>

New-found sight

Ethiopia

Half of the approximately 40,000 children in Ethiopia who are blind suffer from cataracts, a clouding of the lens in the eye. Although the treatment is relatively simple, poverty puts it out of the reach of most families. The IRC is helping children get the surgery they need. IRC blindness prevention coordinator Bayleyegn Birhanu shares the story of one of them, 10-year-old Tigist Bogale.

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A soldier walks past a wrecked armored vehicle on the Sudan side of the border w
A mother and child, Darfur refugees, outside their shelter made of blankets
An elderly refugee sits in her makeshift home.
A burning pile of dead animals
A woman cooks mukhet, a seed used as cattle feed.
Hadiya Beshir Issa holds her severely malnourished 15-month old daughter Munira
A Darfuri refugee holds her malnourished son outside a health facility
Sahara, an IRC-trained midwife (left), helped deliver Ali, seen here with his mo

Darfur: A Humanitarian Disaster

Chad

In 2004, the IRC’s Peter Biro traveled to the isolated border town of Bahai – the IRC’s relief hub in Chad – and found a growing humanitarian crisis as refugees streamed across the border from Darfur. These photos chronicle that visit.

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