Standing with Pakistan

PIH stands in solidarity with those affected by the flooding in Pakistan. We know all too well that natural disasters—whether an earthquake, or a flood, or a tsunami—almost always disproportionately affect communities that are already struggling against the chronic disasters of poverty and disease.

The flood waters in Pakistan have already claimed the lives of 1,500 people, and have left an estimated 20 million homeless. Underlying these numbers is the fact that 60 percent of the nation lives in poverty.

PIH is not a disaster relief organization. Our effectiveness to help the survivors of the January earthquake in Haiti depended on over two decades of building partnerships with local communities in Haiti, and empowering our almost entirely Haitian in-country staff to begin helping their neighbors in the immediate aftermath. 

We do not have a project in Pakistan, so we recommend directing donations to organizations that also focus on partnering with local communities, and that are committed to adhering to human rights-based principles* as they help Pakistan recover and rebuild.

You can find out more about some of these organizations at the links below:

http://pakistanifloodrelief.wordpress.com/

http://www.globalgiving.org/pakistan-floods/

In addition to supporting community-based organizations, you can also help the people of Pakistan by taking action. Each year, Pakistan is forced to pay $3 billion in debt payments to foreign creditors. This is money that the country desperately needs to help bring relief to its devastated people. Sign a petition calling to freeze Pakistan’s debt payments and to increase grant assistance following the disaster.

Read more about this petition and sign today.

* A rights-based approach to development is a conceptual framework that is based on international human rights law and methodology. It integrates the norms, standards and principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into the plans, policies and processes of development.