PAKISTAN’S CHILDREN
© UNICEF/HQ10-1628/Ramoneda
One year after the floods
One year on from the worst floods in Pakistan’s
history, UNICEF has ensured the survival of
millions of children with the help of supporters.
However, much still needs to be done, and the
impact of the floods will continue to be felt for
years to come, especially by children who lost
parents, homes and schools in the disaster.
Children and their families continue to struggle to
rebuild their shattered lives against a backdrop of
dwindling humanitarian funding and fear of new
monsoon floods.
The 2010 floods
In July 2010, the start of the monsoon season led to
one of the world’s largest ever humanitarian crises,
with flooding affecting more than 18 million people
in Pakistan – almost half of them children. The floods
claimed more than 1,700 lives and damaged or
destroyed at least 1.8 million homes. Floodwaters
covered an area the size of the United Kingdom,
and devastated whole towns, washing away roads
and bridges and causing major damage to hospitals,
schools and water supplies.
This summarises UNICEF’s work in Pakistan over
the past year. For more information and multimedia
content, please visit: unicef.org.uk/pakistan
UNICEF’s response was one of the largest
emergency actions in our history and was carried
out in close coordination with the Government of
Pakistan, other UN agencies and civil society partners.
One year on, UNICEF has reached millions of children
with critical nutrition supplies, vaccinations, clean
water, education and child protection services.
Famished land
The widespread destruction of crops and livestock
combined with steepling food prices to create an
alarming rise in child malnutrition. Six months after
the floods, a UNICEF-supported survey revealed that
up to one in four children were acutely malnourished
in the worst-affected areas.
In order to prevent malnutrition, UNICEF worked with
the World Food Programme (WFP) to provide lifesaving food and micronutrient supplements for more
than 290,000 children under the age of two, as well as
pregnant women and mothers. We screened around
2 million children and 600,000 pregnant women and
mothers for malnutrition. We also advised more than
900,000 mothers on major child health issues such
as diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria and malnutrition.
Vaccines
To prevent epidemics of life-threatening diseases,
UNICEF helped to immunise 10.5 million children
© UNICEF/HQ11-0083/Noorani
© UNICEF/HQ11-0079/Noorani
under five with measles vaccinations and 11.7 million
with polio drops. We also provided nearly 12 million
children under five with vitamin A supplementation
during November National Immunisation Days.
Looking ahead
The damage to Pakistan’s health care infrastructure
and the displacement and shortage of (especially
women) health workers continues to present a
massive challenge.
We will combine our flood-response activities into
our regular programmme work to improve children’s
health in Pakistan. This will involve campaigning
for routine immunisation, preventing and treating
malnutrition, strengthening community-based health
care and helping the government prepare for and
respond to future emergencies.
Education
Before the floods, almost 7 milllion children (50 per
cent) were out of school in Pakistan. The floods
damaged more than 8,600 schools and 5,600 became
emergency shelters for displaced people, further
threatening the education of Pakistan’s children.
In all emergencies, UNICEF regards children’s
education as a priority. In Pakistan, we rapidly
established temporary learning centres for almost
300,000 children. We also provided more than
760,000 children with school supplies, such as
School in a Box kits, Early Childhood Development
kits, tables and chairs and stationery, so that children
could continue their education and quickly regain a
normal routine after the disaster.
The success of our work for children – including
the hardest to reach – depends on the generosity
of our donors. UNICEF receives no funding from
the UN budget.
UNICEF is now building 500 transitional schools,
designed to act as a bridge between the temporary
learning centres and permanent schools. These
transitional schools provide safe, flood and earthquakeresistant classrooms, and are designed to last for up to
10 years. By May 2011, we had finished six transitional
schools, benefiting more than 1,150 children.
UNICEF has so far trained 5,750 teachers, including
2,100 women, in psychological and social support
for children, use of emergency supplies, school
management, disaster-risk reduction and emergency
preparedness. We are also training Parent Teacher
Committees and School Management Committees to
develop schools and facilitate enrolment.
Looking ahead
UNICEF will focus resources on building transitional
schools and providing them with teachers, community
training and equipment. Our aim is to get children
back into education quickly and encourage enrolment
among children who were previously out of school.
Water, sanitation and hygiene
After the floods, a staggering 14 million people
urgently required safe drinking water and basic
sanitation facilities. Much of the water supply
infrastructure was destroyed, as well as many water,
sanitation and hygiene facilities throughout the
country. Children and their families found themselves
in an increasingly dangerous situation as the
deterioration in water quality made them susceptible
to sanitation and hygiene-related diseases.
Unsurprisingly, one of UNICEF’s immediate priorities
was to ensure clean drinking water to prevent the
spread of cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery. In the first
six months after the floods, UNICEF provided clean
water to an unprecedented 3.5 million people daily.
UNICEF has also invested in long-term solutions,
such as the repair and restoration of water supplies
FAST FACTS
© UNICEF/HQ11-0099/Noorani
THE FLOODS IN 2010
AFFECTED NEArLy
9 MILLION CHILDrEN
1 IN 4 CHILDrEN ACUTELy
MALNOUrISHED
IN THE WOrST
AFFECTED ArEAS
and the promotion of household water treatment.
Now, 5 million people have safe water in floodaffected areas – that’s the equivalent of the total
population of New Zealand. We have also carried out
the mass chlorination of water sources to pre-empt
disease outbreak as the weather gets warmer. This
will assist around 4 million people.
Nearly 3 million people now benefit from improved
sanitation thanks to UNICEF, as we initiated the
construction of toilets, trenches and the provision of
bathing facilities. Promoting positive hygiene in the
community, such as handwashing with soap, has also
resulted in reduced rates of diarrhoeal diseases.
Looking ahead
UNICEF will continue to support children by restoring
the water supply and improving access to water.
We will also ensure sustainable technologies and
build community capacity for the operation and
maintenance of water systems.
Child protection
Before the emergency, many children in Pakistan
faced violence, abuse and exploitation through
practices such as child labour and child marriage. The
floods separated many thousands of children from
their loved ones and created further food and income
insecurity in the home. In many cases, families and
individuals were unable to cope and communities
were stretched to breaking point. Trafficking became
more prevalent. The disruption to communities also
increased children’s psychological and social distress,
as well as their risk of physical and sexual abuse.
Furthermore, children and parents were injured by
artillery and landmines exposed by the floodwaters.
To help protect children, UNICEF created childfriendly spaces for nearly 400,000 children, providing
education and play activities as well as psychological
support for victims of trauma. We also created safe
spaces for 11,000 women and worked with partners
UNICEF HELPED
IMMUNISE 11.7 MILLION
CHILDrEN AgAINST
POLIO
WE gAVE SCHOOL
SUPPLIES TO HELP MOrE
THAN 760,000 CHILDrEN
bACk TO SCHOOL
UNICEF DAILy PrOVIDED
CLEAN WATEr FOr
3.5 MILLION PEOPLE
WE CrEATED CHILD
FrIENDLy SPACES FOr
MOrE THAN 400,000
CHILDrEN
UNICEF rEQUIrES MOrE
THAN £30 MILLION FOr
OUr PrOgrAMMES FOr
PAkISTAN’S CHILDrEN
IN 2011.
© UNICEF/HQ10-2976/Noorani
m Continue investing in health, nutrition, water,
sanitation and hygiene for children
m Eliminate polio through vaccination, a huge step
towards global polio reduction
m Strengthen systems to prevent school drop-out,
child labour and child marriage
m Enhance community and local government
capacities for disaster-risk reduction, emergency
preparedness and response for future monsoon
seasons.
A lack of funding means that the needs of Pakistan
continue to be unfulfilled. UNICEF needs more
than £30 million to continue our essential flood
response programmes for children and a further
£3.8 million for critical humanitarian needs.
to distribute over 530,000 non-food items, such as
blankets, shoes and utensils to vulnerable children
and families.
We have trained staff in hospitals to identify and
manage child sexual and physical abuse cases, which
has already resulted in children being protected and
referred to appropriate care. We have also promoted
the prevention of gender-based violence through
training, and strengthened systems for supporting
children who have been separated from their families.
So far, we also have raised the awareness of
mine risk amongst 238,000 people, including 184,000
children in the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
With continued support, UNICEF can continue to
provide humanitarian assistance and build back better
for Pakistan’s children.
Thank you for supporting children in Pakistan.
To transform more children’s lives, we must
maintain our efforts throughout 2011 and beyond.
For more information and to donate, please visit:
unicef.org.uk/pakistan
© UNICEF/HQ10-2976/Noorani
Looking ahead
UNICEF will continue to strengthen the capacity of
local government and partners to set up communitybased social services, provide referral services, and
strengthen case management for gender-based
violence and child protection.
UNICEF will also continue to strengthen government
information management systems and child rights
monitoring and reporting mechanisms.
What now for Pakistan’s children?
Pakistan’s children will feel the impact of the floods
for years to come. We have to do much more to
help children rebuild their lives and to address the
underlying conditions that leave them so vulnerable.
The floods exposed the full extent of inequity in
many areas, but have presented new opportunities
to improve the lives of children. For example, many
children have got the chance to go to school for the
first time and vaccination and nutrition services now
reach more children than ever.
Looking forward, there are clear priorities that must
be addressed to help the most vulnerable and
disadvantaged children.
UNICEF prints on 100 per cent recycled paper. Please recycle after use.
inside story:
Rayan
Rayan, age 7, lost his home in the floods. He spent
three months moving from shelter to shelter.
Now Rayan lives with his family in a tent. His
father Nisar said, “We lost all our cattle, our house
collapsed. We lost everything.”
Every day for the first six months after the
emergency, UNICEF provided clean drinking water
to 3.5 million people.
This information sheet has been produced in-house to minimise our costs.