Supporter: Shagufta Jeelani

Rasalat's father, Yaqoob, has an illness that prevents him from working. So the family completely depends on Rasalat's income as a day laborer. Photo: Raheel Ayaz/Mercy Corps

This was written by my colleague Raheel Ayaz, a monitoring and evaluation officer here in Pakistan:

Sixteen-year-old Rasalat Khan is a member of one of the 161 families who received emergency food and tool kits from Mercy Corps on Wednesday.

Rasalat's father, Yaqoob, has an illness that prevents him from working. So the family completely depends on Rasalat's income as a day laborer.

He tells us that water ransacked his two-room house, triggering the collapse of three side walls and washing away all items in the household -- including furniture, crockery and tools.

Across the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan, families are dealing with similar levels of destruction. Houses are filled with mud, water is polluted, bridges are washed out and there is no electricity available. People are struggling to survive.

Since Rasalat's neighbors are in the same situation as his family, he could not borrow tools like a shovel, a pickaxe or buckets to clean debris.

"Today I am very happy," he said, "as I have some food to feed my family for few days and also got some tools and equipment."

Each food kit contains rice, lentils, cooking oil and powdered milk. Each tool kit contains a wheelbarrow, shovel, hammer and other implements.

"I am not only able to clean debris of my house but can also help my neighbors who are facing same problem," said Rasalat. "Inshallah, soon I will rebuild walls of my house and we will have shelter again."

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This picture is of the kids of five families living in a primary school which is away from the distribution points in Pakistan's Mardan District. Photo: Shagufta Jeelani/Mercy Corps

Some of the items purchased for children by the Mercy Corps Pakistan staff.

Loading the bags for delivery.

On Saturday, we distributed bags and plastic sheets to 160 internally displaced people in six different locations in the Mardan District, where many of the 2.5 million IDPs are staying. These were items which we bought using nearly $4,000 in staff contributions. We have another 40 bags that will be distributed through emergency team this week.

The bags included something for the children. We distributed:

• 75 girls bags containing one suit piece of six-meter cloth (as they can stitch by borrowing sewing machine from host family), one mosquito net, and one pair of shoes, a doll and molding clay.
• 75 boys bags containing one suit piece of six-meter cloth, one mosquito net, one pair of shoes, a drawing book and colored pencils or crayons
• 200 hundred plastic sheets
• 300 hand fans (two for each family)

Distributing the bags at a school.

We also bought one pedestal fan for a family living in a school with four disabled brother and sisters. They could not even use hand fans, so we made a decision to provide them with a pedestal fan.

We collected money from staff in Islamabad, our Pakistan field offices and Portland to purchase and distribute these items.

Volunteers and community members helped us distribute the items. The emergency-response team requested them to prepare a list of those who are very needy and deserving. We distributed to those who were identified by the community and were on the list.

However, they were in need of so many other things that we requested community members and volunteers to prepare list of most deserving people in the community and also their three major needs at the moment. We will try to use the money remaining to buy those items.

A boy receives a box colored markers.

I would like to thank the distribution team who helped in all stages including buying all these items from various places, packing, loading and then distribution. Thank you very much ‘Waqas, Asim, Raheel for all you help on each stage. Special thanks to Batool, Irshad Rana, Haji Qasim, Shabbir, Adeel, Zaheer, Munir, Saqib, Hishaam and Kazim for helping us in packing and distribution.

We are very thankful to all of you who contributed money and made it possible to help IDPs and proved that Mercy Corps Pakistan is a great team!

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