IOM has launched a USD 192,000 pilot project to offer "core"
shelter solutions to flood victims returning to their damaged or
destroyed homes.

The one-month pilot, which will offer a flexible alternative to
"transitional" shelters that use bamboo or timber frames and
plastic sheeting for roofing and walls, will help people to
permanently rebuild their former homes by providing them with
locally sourced materials and tools.

Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)
estimates that the number of homes damaged or destroyed by the
floods has now reached 1.9 million, spread over an area the size of
Italy.

Core shelter assistance, which will be rolled out in parallel
with transitional shelters in the pilot, is based on need,
according to IOM Pakistan early recovery shelter expert
Hasballah.

"If a family returns to a partially damaged home, they may need
a clean up kit and assistance with repairs. If their home has been
completely destroyed, they will need essential materials like
roofing, doors and window frames, as well as a tool kit. If their
home has been destroyed and they can't return to their land, they
will probably need a transitional shelter kit that they can
subsequently move," he says.

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Core shelters, like transitional shelters, will measure between
16-25 m2 and will be built by the families themselves, or in the
case of vulnerable female-headed or elderly households, by the
community.

The pilot, which will target just 300 families in the three
provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Punjab and Sindh, will take
into account different traditional construction techniques and
materials used in different parts of the vast flood-affected
area.

Districts that the pilot hopes to target will include Charsadda
and Nowshera in KPK; Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur and Muzaffargarh in
Punjab; and Jacobabad, Larkana, Sukkur, Kashmore, Shikarpur, Dadu,
Thatta and Badin in Sindh.

The project aims to analyze the challenges posed by large scale
implementation, including the selection of beneficiaries, community
mobilization, procurement, the availability of local building
materials, their transport and distribution, construction by
beneficiaries, technical aspects (design, monitoring, supervision,
technical support and training) and coordination among stakeholders
and government counterparts.

"The pilot will show us the extent to which the flexible core
shelter concept is feasible and how we will need to adapt it. If it
works as we hope it will, it will support local market recovery,
minimize large scale imports, reduce logistical bottlenecks and
ultimately provide flood victims with the fastest solution to their
longer term shelter needs," says IOM Pakistan Emergency Response
Manager Brian Kelly.

IOM has appealed to international donors for USD 25.8 million to
implement core and transitional shelter projects to help some
49,000 families or 343,000 people over the next 12 months.

For more information on IOM's activities in Pakistan, to
download IOM funding appeals or to donate to IOM's flood response,
please go to: "/jahia/Jahia/pakistan" target="" title=
"">http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pakistan.

For information on the Emergency Shelter Cluster, please go to:
"http://www.shelterpakistan.org/" target="_blank" title=
"">http://www.shelterpakistan.org/.

For more information please contact:

Saleem Rehmat

IOM Islamabad

Tel: +92.300 856 0341

E-mail: "mailto:srehmat@iom.int">srehmat@iom.int

or

Chris Lom

Tel: +92.300 852 6357

E-mail: "mailto:clom@iom.int">clom@iom.int