T hroughout Pakistan , close to 600,000 homes have been destroyed as a result of the earthquake in 2005. Samaritan's Purse is currently working in two municipalities, Charakpura and Chattar Kalas with a total population of 40,000 people. Our focus is on sustainable development programmes, and we are in talks with the Pakistani Government on how we can provide more help.We are also running a number of other programmes, including:

Child education
The schools were mostly of cheap construction, and simply collapsed when the quake hit. This meant that an appalling number of children – perhaps 18,000 – were killed in their classrooms, and that the children who survived have nothing left. So we are running teacher training programmes with teachers from 20 schools, resupplying schools with materials and providing children with hygiene education lessons. We are also planning to re-construct four other schools with the help of SP Germany.

Water and sanitation
Our current programmes in 20 villages include digging latrines and piping in clean water from clean water sources. We have also provided water purification materials for approximately another 9,000 people.

Cash-for-work schemes
These provide a way for the earthquake victims to earn a living, as the economy has pretty much collapsed. And so we pay the local men to repair their earthquake damaged road, and we pay the women to produce gabions (metal cages) that they fill with rubble to use as roadside safety barriers and to support the cliff walls along the roadsides. Cash-forwork has been a success, and the local men in six of the villages were so enthusiastic that they all put their money together to hire a bulldozer to clear the road before we arrived in preparation.

Care Groups for women
In 20 villages, we help improve female hygiene, lower infant mortality, talk about post-earthquake trauma, and also enable the women to have a ‘village voice' in this very religiously conservative area.

Transitional shelters have been provided for 1,000 people. The winter is over but shelter from the elements is still very important. We also support church and ministry work here through a variety of programmes. The Christians in Pakistan need our prayers, encouragement, good teaching and resources.

Please pray for the safety, guidance and wisdom for all of us out here, and guidance for the SP leadership in deciding our course of action for the future.

> Click here to donate to the Pakistan Earthquake Relief programme

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