International Rescue Committee Emergency Teams Aid Pakistan Quake Victims

The International Rescue Committee is dispatching three emergency teams to provide urgent assistance to earthquake survivors in the hardest hit districts of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province.

"One team, with shelter, water supply, sanitation and psychosocial specialists, has been dispatched to devastated Mansehra and Abbottabad," says Heng Djin Tjik, the IRC's deputy director of programs in Pakistan.

She says a second team will head to Battagram and a third to Shangla Districts as soon as road conditions improve, as landslides are blocking access to many of the impacted towns.

"The IRC will initially provide emergency food and non-food materials including tents, blankets, milk, water and energy biscuits to affected families," Djin Tik adds.  "Psychosocial specialists will also provide counseling to traumatized survivors."

The IRC is accepting donations to support our emergency relief efforts.  Please click here or call 1-877-REFUGEE to expedite resources to IRC's Pakistan relief effort.

The IRC was among the lead organizations aiding victims of torrential rains, avalanches and flooding that hit North-West Frontier Province earlier this year. 

The IRC continues to be one of the largest and longest-serving aid organizations in Pakistan.  Assistance was launched in 1980 to aid Afghan refugees fleeing the Soviet invasion. More than two decades later, the IRC is regarded as one of the main providers of education for Afghan refugee children, as well as medical care, vocational training, and water supply and sanitation services to hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugee families who remain in Pakistan to escape turmoil at home.