A Camp Support Team set up at the request of the Earthquake
Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) and comprising
the government’s camp management organizations, UNHCR, the
Norwegian Refugee Council and IOM spent the final weeks of 2006
racing to improve living conditions for displaced people facing a
second winter under canvas.

In just five weeks, ten IOM construction teams, each comprising
3 carpenters and 4 labourers, built nearly 350 shelters made of
wood and bamboo and roofed with corrugated galvanized iron (CGI)
sheets in three camps in Muzaffarabad district - Chattar Kalas,
Agro Tech Industrial Area and Agro Tech.

The shelters, which were built with funding from the American
International Group Disaster Relief Fund (AIG DRF), are designed to
protect people against harsh weather conditions including heavy
rains, snowfall and strong winds. They are also safer than
tents.

"In the tent it was really dangerous to light a fire to keep my
family warm and dry, but in this shelter I can," says Ghulam
Muhammad, who has lived in Agro Tech Industrial Area camp with his
wife and two sons for over a year.

They are unable to return home to Makri Bela village, 3
kilometres from the camp, because a landslide following the
earthquake swept away their house and land.

At least 6,500 families are still living in camps across the
38,000 square-kilometre region devastated by the earthquake, which
killed nearly 75,000 people and displaced 3.4 million others.

“Relief agencies and the government have been making a
major effort since November to winterize camps to ensure that
people don’t have to experience the same conditions which
they faced last year,” says IOM project manager John
Sampson.

According to ERRA, 90 percent of the winterization process has
been completed in the camps with the provision of shelters and
winterized tents. Where shelters were not deemed necessary, new
winterized tents replaced old ones.

“Life in a tent is difficult – it is wet during the
rain, sometimes blown away by strong winds, and can collapse in
heavy snowfall. But this new wood and tin sheeting structure is a
great relief,” says Hukam Jan, who lives in the Agro Tech
Industrial Area camp. Jan, aged 27, is a mother of five who moved
to the camp a year ago.

IOM construction teams have been asked by other district
governments to provide construction assistance in other camps in
Muzaffarabad district in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and other
districts in NWFP.

“The winterization process is moving fast and I’m
fairly confident that we are really making a difference to the
quality of life for these people, most of whom were left destitute
by the earthquake,” says John Sampson.