2010 PAKISTAN FLOODS
In 2010, Pakistan's worst ever monsoon floods affected 21 million people. Authorities estimate that over 1.2 million houses were damaged or destroyed. Nearly one million people were forced to live outdoors. The number of flood-related deaths was 2,000.
Two-year-old Anita and her mother Gulan. They lost their home and livestock to the floods. For months they sheltered under a thin cotton sheet in a camp on the outskirts of Sukkur city, Sindh Province. To get to the camp, home to over 1,000 people, they trekked two hours from Jacobabad with only the clothes on their backs. Officials estimate at least 1,000 camps rose out of the dust on the outskirts of Sukkur city, eventually sheltering 454,000 flood-affected people.
Javeed, 5 at the time, is from Kashmoor in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province. For at last 12 days he lived with his parents, plus four brothers and sisters in a school that sheltered 2,000 flood-affected people. Javeed suffered fever and a skin rashes. Doctors working for Save the Children gave him medicine and lotions for his skin infection.
Two-year-old Ramzan suffered from severe stage three dehydration. His mother Hajra, from Sindh, looks on anxiously as a doctor supported by Save the Children explains she must help her son drink electrolytes to replace lost salts and sugars. For 15 days Ramzan had lived on a baking concrete floor with little access to clean water and food.
Many children like Ramzan became very sick because of the floods.
Kareema and her five-year-old son Allah wait in line at a food distribution point run by Save the Children and the United Nation's World Food Programme. Originally from Jacobabad, they lived in a school that sheltered people made homeless by the floods. For 12 weeks they received rations including wheat flour, cooking oil, and high-energy biscuits.
A CNN cameraman films at one of Save the Children’s basic health clinics in Sukkur. Working with media in a disaster response is challenging but the exposure generated helps raise awareness and funds.
Husna cradles her one month old baby boy, Aijaz. For months they sought refuge in one of thousands of camps established on the outskirts of Sukkur in Sindh Province.
Mithal, named after his father, at one day old. Swaddled in cotton cloth, Mithal received care from a Save the Children health team in Sukkur.
Young mother Abida with her newborn son, Mithal. Originally from Jacobabad, Abida spent weeks sheltering in a Sukkur school turned camp for flood affected people. “I cried all the time when the floods came,” said Abida. “Everything just gone. Everything under water. I was very worried for my baby.” When Abida went into labour Save the Children health workers, having established a basic health care clinic in the grounds of the school, referred her to a local hospital. Abida received medicines for her baby and a newborn kit, which includes items like diapers and baby rash cream.
Like millions of people in Sindh, Abida and husband Ali fled the floods that swept across the land. Heavily pregnant, Abida walked five kilometres to reach the safety of a school in Sukkur. Ali, formerly a rice farmer, said at the time. “Me very happy. I want my son to grow up and to have the education.”
Kamalan sits with her eldest of three children, Shazia. Sleeping on the floor is the family's youngest, a four-day-old girl. It is Islamic tradition to name children six days after birth. “Zubair is a good name for a girl,” said Kamalan. “But I don’t know yet.” Kamalan and her young family lived in a fetid classroom shared with other homeless families. Like so many people, Kamalan’s family fled their home when the River Indus burst its banks flooding thousands of homes.
Giovanni Figus, a logistician with Save the Children, managed monthly food distribution to 85,000 flood-affected families in Pakistan. At the time it was the largest ever food distribution in the agency’s history.