IOM is planning to increase from 10,500 to 30,000 the number of
one-room shelters (ORS) that it is providing to vulnerable families
made homeless by the 2011 Sindh floods.

The existing ORS programme, which provides money and technical
help to families made homeless by the floods to rebuild, will reach
some 73,500 people by May 2013. The expanded programme, if funded,
will reach some 210,000 people.

The programme, launched in Sindh earlier this year, has already
identified and selected over 3,300 vulnerable families – some
21,300 people – whose houses were completely destroyed in
floods, which hit Sindh in August and September of last year and
affected some 5.8 million people.

Through a combination of community involvement, cash payments
and technical support, the ORS project helps families to move from
temporary shelters, often tents or structures made with plastic
sheet, into something more durable that will survive future floods
and other natural disasters.

IOM assessment and monitoring teams are currently working with
local partners in four districts in southern Sindh – Mirpur
Khas, Umerkot, Tando Allah Yar and Tharparkar – to identify
more beneficiaries.

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One Room Shelter

Local partners, who have a detailed knowledge of the affected
communities, include the Badin Development Organization (BDO),
Rural Development Policy Institute (RPDI), Association for Human
Development (AHD), Sewa Development Trust Sindh (SDTS), Badin
Development and Research Organization (BDRO), Social Organization
Development (SOD), Muslim Aid, Basic Human Rights (BHR), Save the
Nature and Humanity Development Organization Sindh (STNAH), Lead
Against Marginality and Poverty (LAMP) and Fundamental Ideas
Navigator (FIN).

Beneficiary Asma Parveen lives with her elderly husband and five
children in Mohammad Hassan Gujrati in Umerkot. Since the flood
destroyed their house, they have lived in a tent near a local
government building.

"We were living a good life before the flood. My daughter's
engagement ceremony was held a few days before the flood came. We
were planning for her marriage. Now the flood has destroyed our
home and we are unable to hold the wedding," she says.

Another beneficiary, Wikyo Maghanhar, lives in Jai Ram Das
Kolhi, a Hindu village in Umerkot district. He suffers from acute
asthma and depends on his son to care for him. The family lost all
their crops, their home and their household belongings in the 2011
floods, and spent four months sheltering in a nearby government
school.

"We give thanks to God for sending people to help us. Without
this support (USD 300 and technical help to build an ORS) we would
not have been able to rebuild our home for months, or maybe even a
year," he says.

"It's not enough to just give people money to rebuild their
house. With the 2012 monsoon season approaching, we are teaching
beneficiaries how to make stronger, more disaster-resistant
shelters. The technical improvements that we propose also have to
be consistent with indigenous, appropriate designs and locally
available building materials," explains IOM shelter programme
manager Manuel Pereira.

IOM introduced the ORS concept to Pakistan following the
disastrous nationwide floods of 2010. The 2010 programme, which was
completed in February 2012, supported the construction of 38,500
shelters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh provinces.

The 2011 Sindh programme, which is supported by the United
Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) and
USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), has received
some USD 7.7 million to date. In February 2012 IOM appealed for a
total of USD 21.3 million for shelter in the USD 440 million
revised UN appeal for Sindh flood victims.   

To watch interviews with ORS beneficiaries following the 2010
floods, as well as those IOM aims to support this year, please go
to:

Voices from the Field

For more information please contact:

IOM Pakistan

Email: pessu@iom.int