Helping Pakistan's flood victims
In the months of July and August, above-average rainfall caused severe flooding along the length of the Indus River valley in Pakistan. At one point nearly one-fifth of Pakistan's total land area was underwater. It is estimated that over 2,000 people died, with more than 21 million people injured or made homeless. Many are still in need of fresh water and food. The flooding also brought a significant risk of diseases spreading through the population.
Many colleagues wanted to help. But Umicore has no operations in the area and no way to co-ordinate any actions there. So the Group decided to support a well-known independent organisation, Médecins du Monde (MdM), or Doctors of the World. Active in Pakistan since 1996, MdM understood that the most critical health problems were caused by contaminated water and lack of hygiene.
With the donation MdM set up a treatment centre for diarrhoea in the town of Kohat in the north of the country. The organisation also established a cholera prevention campaign and an operation to assist people in the most remote flood-hit areas.
Médecins du Monde
Médecins du Monde (MdM) or Doctors of the World is a non-governmental humanitarian aid organisation created in 1980 by a group of French doctors, (including Bernard Kouchner, the current French Foreign Minister). It provides medical care to vulnerable populations affected by war, natural disasters, disease, famine, poverty or exclusion. The MdM international network now extends to 16 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
MdM runs emergency and development programmes in more than 60 countries. It depends on the efforts of nearly 3,000 professionals who volunteer their time. They include doctors, surgeons, midwives, nurses and psychologists. Other types of personnel are also involved: co-ordinators, administrators, logistics experts and human rights specialists.
Learn more at www.mdm-international.org.
Picture © Kris Pannecoucke/reporter-Pakistan 1212