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Media Statement, 29th November 2005
As winter hits the mountains of Kashmir, GOAL has
been working around the clock to get sample shelters designed and
built.
The shelters will provide one warm room for vulnerable families
on high ground, where temperatures will drop to minus 15 degrees
or more, and snow of 4 to 8 feet can be expected.
Easy to build, affordable and functional, the shelters will make
a vital difference to the homeless and vulnerable who face the onerous
prospect of surviving the ‘merciless Himalayan winter’,
as described by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who visited the
quake zone 10 days ago.
GOAL’s Shelter Engineer, Andy Cox, said:
“We finished the first shelter yesterday and the family moved
in immediately. It was sleeting. First thing they did was light
a fire inside! Their tents were soaked, along with all their belongings
and they really appreciated the shelter.”
 GOAL
will construct sample shelters for vulnerable beneficiaries across
its area of operation in Bagh district. GOAL will then provide material
in the form of corrugated iron sheeting, washers and nails. Beneficiaries
have already received USAID plastic sheeting for use as insulation
material and flooring. These complement winter tents and blankets
from Development Co-operation Ireland (DCI) as part of an overall
shelter survival package for Kashmiris this winter.
Locals will then be able to construct their own temporary winter
shelter using materials supplied and recycled timber and tin from
fallen homes, based on the GOAL sample shelters.
GOAL will supply enough material to allow 7,500 families build their
own temporary shelter.
GOAL Pakistan Country Director is Ann Marie O’Donoghue. She
said “we aim to save lives by creating one warm room for the
vulnerable. The people want to remain on or near their homesteads
for the duration of the winter, and we want to facilitate this.
Otherwise we will face a situation where families stream downhill
when the extreme cold sets in. They will be crammed into camps and
settlements, where the potential for disease epidemics and social/protection
issues will be extremely difficult to counteract.”
Maruf Hussein Shah is a disabled father of four, and is the first
recipient of a GOAL sample shelter. He expressed his gratitude to
GOAL for the shelter. “I thank you for this shelter. My family
thank you. God willing we will be fine for this winter.”
Kashmiri carpenter Jamil Ahmed and locally-hired labour will work
alongside Andy Cox to build the sample shelters in a number of locations
over the coming days.
Shelter specialist Cox said, “We encourage the use of hay
as insulation between a sandwich of plastic sheeting and tin sheeting.
Otherwise it will just be too cold for people here – especially
the very young and the elderly.’”
With the international relief effort still vastly under-funded,
however, the situation is approaching crisis point for many of the
vulnerable. With winter setting in and reports of the first winter-related
deaths coming in, time is fast running out if another humanitarian
disaster is to be averted in northern Pakistan.
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