Red Cross Blogs

Returning from deployment in Pakistan

By Jamie
October 1, 2010 at 4:51 pm

This is a guest post from Kate Thomas, a member of the British Red Cross logistics emergency response unit in Pakistan. Kate has been blogging from the field on our emergency blog.

I’m new to relief work, and have been overwhelmed at all the factors to consider to ensure quick and efficient distribution of food and relief items – things like road safety, labour and security at the distribution point. It is also difficult to estimate when consignments are expected, and therefore to plan the labour and trucks.

Food has to be laboratory tested before dispatch to ensure it’s not substandard, or more importantly, at risk of causing harm. Distributing mosquito nets without education is dangerous – they are impregnated with repellent which can causes rashes and even worse, breathing difficulties in youngsters if they are not left to hang for 24 hours before use. Also, public holidays like Eid when no workers were available!

Security has been another issue: events like the threatened burning of the Koran on 11th September and the conviction of Dr Aafia in the US meant there were days were we were advised not to leave the hotel. Some days we could have left if we’d accepted an armed police escort, but we are the Red Cross and our fundamental principles of neutrality, humanity, impartiality mean we should never be protected by weapons.

Challenges present themselves, and we have to deal with them. This is not to dramatise the situation, or to patronise your understanding of relief work. Hopefully just to help you understand my newcomer’s view on what some of the challenges are, what is important and why things happen when – and also to stress that although sometimes we just hear stories about what hasn’t happened, not what IS happening.

All that said, we achieved a great deal in our month. Sourcing and setting up 2 warehouses, refurbishing one of them, employing and training 2 reliable local labour forces, engaging 2 truck fleets, recruiting and training excellent local staff, ensuring a good relationship with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, working with the relief team to distribute over 12,000 food and non-food parcels, and handing over to the new team who we wish the best of luck!

Is all this too little too late? Definitely not. The needs of the flood-affected people will continue for years. Those who have been able to return home have returned to damaged houses and ruined land; they cannot support themselves. What we do now is critical for their livelihoods, and personally I have felt very lucky to have been given the opportunity to contribute, even if just in a small way.

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Tags: ERU, Pakistan

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