ISLAMABAD, 8 April 2006 — Some 300,000 people hit by the devastating Oct. 8 earthquake are preparing to return to their villages after spending the winter in tent encampments, relief agency Oxfam said yesterday.
“You can see things getting better for the people here. They’ve started moving to their old houses, their old villages,” said Britain’s Olympics boxing silver medalist, Amir Khan, who is working with Oxfam to raise money for destitute Pakistanis. “I don’t know what they are going to do there ... they don’t know if their village is going to be OK,” 19-year-old Khan, who was born in northern England and is of Pakistani descent, said at a news conference organized by Oxfam in Islamabad.
“More support is now needed as thousands of displaced people are being moved from official camps to their home areas, while authorities begin to implement plans for rehabilitation and reconstruction,” Oxfam said in a statement. Faruqi Stocker, the relief agency’s head in Pakistan, said: “This process must be safe, voluntary, dignified and informed, with authorities ensuring adequate support facilities are put in place where the people are returning.”
The United States, which has pledged over $510 million of aid, said yesterday it was giving $13 million toward rehabilitation of the survivors. The United States Agency for Development (USAID) chief for Pakistan, Jonathan Addleton said around ten more grants would be announced in the coming days.
Meanwhile, Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, visited a rehabilitation center in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) yesterday to meet women and children survivors of the earthquake.
Cherie Blair and Pakistan’s First Lady Sehba Musharraf flew by helicopter to Hattian, some 70 kilometers north of Islamabad, where they visited Aashiana — a rehabilitation center currently accommodating nearly 500 women and children.
Cherie arrived earlier yesterday for a weeklong visit to Pakistan.
