Church World Service teams are continuing to help hundreds of families in remote, underserved areas hit by the Pakistan earthquake.

|PIC1|Relief helicopters are once again making regular trips in northern Pakistan following heavy rain and snow that worsened already poor conditions for the survivors of the October 2005 earthquake.

The global humanitarian agency, Church World Service (CWS), said its aid workers in the region remain deeply concerned about the welfare of families who chose to stay in difficult to access areas.

CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan Country Director Marvin Parvez said in Islamabad that the agency’s teams recently identified about 200 families in Dhulla Maira and Dharmang villages, in union council Dhudyal, Tehsil and Mansehra District, who had received only minimal assistance to date.

CWS responded to the situation by distributing tents, sheets and shawls to these families.

“We are concerned that many will yet die of exposure, especially those who’ve remained in their villages and have still received little by way of shelter materials or other aid,” said CEO and executive director of Church World Service, Rev. John L. McCullough. “The haste to avert further deaths is still of the first order.”

|QUOTE|CWS teams and its partners, as well as UN agencies and other NGOs operating in the area, are now working to relocate families out of tents damaged by flooding in some of the camps.

Church World Service is currently formulating plans for affected and homeless survivors amid the fears and worries of survivors about winter survival and shelter.

At a recent meeting with male residents in Shohal Najaf tent village to assess survivors’ initial recovery and reconstruction plans. CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan found many people concerned that the emergency tents would not be able to withstand heavy snow and rain in coming weeks, despite CWS reassurances that the tents are winterised.

Marvin Parvez, CWS Pakistan-Afghanistan Regional Director, said, however, that there is a shortage of the corrugated iron sheets being used for building and immediate winter shelter, with thousands still living in summer-weight tents in the snow and wet conditions, “with heavier snow yet to come,” he said.

|AD|According to Parvez, UNHCR has begun distributing more blankets and plastic sheeting in the northern frontier, with reports indicating that the World Food Programme (WFP) having already covered an estimated 65 per cent of the 90, 787 survivors targeted to be served.

With diseases remaining at a consistently low level within the camps, support for the emotional strain remains one of the greatest challenges for the emergency responders still at work in the earthquake-affected areas.

"We are all relieved so far that widespread disease has been kept at bay here, but we are deeply troubled by the relentless emotional pain we see around us, in children, adults, older people, those who've lost so many loved ones,” said Parvez. “The continued struggles are wearing down even the most resilient."

An eight-woman team also joined with the joint CWS-Norwegian Church Aid operation at the CWS office in Mansehra, enabling the group’s existing psychosocial programme to be stepped up.

CWS and its partner teams estimate that more than 219,000 houses were destroyed throughout the earthquake-affected region with up to 90 per cent of the buildings collapsing from the quake. At least 9,000 quake victims are still missing.