Oxfam: Transitional Shelter

Emergency Humanitarian Response

Bashir Ahmed sitting outside the one-room bandi (transitional shelter) in Dchoor Faqrian. “We stayed in the open for six days,” recalls Ahmed, standing outside a transitional shelter (bandi) that he built with the help of Oxfam. “It was a tough and scary time.”
Credit: Oxfam

The family of Bashir Ahmed, a shopkeeper in the Kashmiri village of Dchoor Faqrian, survived the earthquake, but their two houses and a shop were destroyed. Oxfam has helped him build a transitional shelter in which he and his family are now living.
Around ten per cent of the 1400 strong population died when the earthquake struck Dchoor Faqrian, a typical remote Kashmiri village 50 kilometres from Muzaffarabad. Its houses, scattered over 5000 feet high on the mountain, were all destroyed or damaged.

“Most of us decided not to leave our place but it was not easy to remain in the open with children and women,” recalls Ahmed.
The road to Dchoor Faqrian, which is more of a mud path zigzagging up to the village, is blocked whenever there is rain or snow because of constant landslides.
“The weather has been much better than the last year and it has helped us to stay near our homes in tents,” says Ahmed.
Snow brings colder nights But when it started snowing in early January, Ahmed, and other villagers, felt they needed something more durable. “Tents collapsed under the snow and we suffered sleepless cold nights. Most of us thought about going down to camps, but that was something we were reluctant to do.”

However, some of the families moved down to camps, leaving their land, livestock and destroyed homes behind.

“They feared for their children. Last year, we had the worst winter of our lives. If anything like that had happened this year, most of us would not have survived.”
Help arrived for Ahmed and other people of Dchoor Faqrian in the form of materials for building a bandi, a one-room structure traditionally built for temporary or seasonal accommodation.

“Once we got materials for building a bandi, there was no question of moving down.”

Oxfam support
Oxfam has given iron sheets, sacks, pickaxes, shovels, plastic sheeting, and blankets to its partner Sungi for distribution in Dchoor Faqrian.
We are well on the way to distributing 12,680 bandis (covering over 108,000 people) through our transitional shelter work in the earthquake areas.
In Pakistani-administered Kashmir, we have distributed material for over 3000 bandis, targeting over 24,000 people, with another 2000 bandis on the way.
People able to return home The people who left Dchoor Faqrian after the first snows returned when they heard about the building of bandis.

“Good weather and something to build a room for the family is enough for us to stay where we are. We want to be near our people and culture.”

Ahmed has received the first instalment of the compensation, which is for building temporary shelter, from the government and plans to rebuild his two homes.
Story by Daud Malik

www.oxfam.org.uk





Iran (Doroud)Earthquake

On Friday night, 31 March, through out early morning hours villages in the mountain areas of Boroujerd and Doroud (the epicenter of the quake - 80 KM east of Khoramabad city) were hit by several earthquakes in the scale of 6, 5.1, 5.5, 4.7 ending with 63 death toll and 1264 injured, leaving behind 1500 damaged rural houses (20 to 90%) in 330 villages. There are reports of 71 aftermath shakes two days after. The reports of mortality of 42000 domesticated animals could be the source of spread of diseases. The Head of Medical Emergency Center stated that 5 ambulances with a medical team of 10, were dispatched to the affected area. Medical University of the Province made remarks about 12 teams of public health experts that are now assessing the health and psychological issues of the people. Removing the rubles began on Sunday, two days after the quake, focusing on repairing water, electricity and communication services of 313 affected villages that are cut of from the network. At present 19 water tankers are transporting the water to affected areas.

There has been, however, wide contestation regarding lack of timely and adequate emergency response by relief organizations as well as local authorities to provide sufficient blankets, tents, and other heating devices to cope with the cold nights of mountainous areas. According to Red Crescent 10,000 tents have been distributed in Lorestan Province. The Head of the Crisis Committee announced the on going efforts for distribution of 20,000 blankets but insisted that they need further 10,000. The chief of Crusader Population confirmed that there is immediate need for more blankets and tents. Apparently 3 troops of police and militias are handling the task of distribution of needed items and other relief works. The Mayor of Boroujerd described the chaos where people are rushing to the city to seek help and needed items. The rainy whether has aggravated the situation for homeless people.

There were marks of fraud reported where the tents were sold for 50 pounds to needy people. For this reason they have been asking for ID card and a down payment of 20 pounds to deliver tents to people who come asking for tents. There have also been reports of arrests. The chief of police also stressed that there is no possibility now to deliver tents to cities since the villagers are in priority.

To cover the need for the food items 10,000 breads and additional canned food were sent to the area one day after the quake.

Three historical monuments were seriously damaged during the quake – Soltan Mosque, Jamee Mosque, and Emamzadeh Jafar Shrine dated back to 200 years (Qajar) were destroyed.


Sources: Local Daily Newspapers