Today we were unable to hold our planned medical clinic in Mahroof Khel Charsadda due to the lack of a doctor. The usual three phases of a relief programme are initial relief, rehabilitation and then reconstruction. Whilst we have been operating in the relief phase which is geared towards saving lives by looking after the essentials of food, water and shelter, we have been transitioning our focus into the rehabilitation phase where medical and public health issues become much more important.
Producing resources that can be left in place for the longer term is also part of the rehabilitation phase and the Midland Doctors Association UK executive has been keeping its eye upon this area and in order to do this, as well as target our medical interventions most effectively, on the ground surveys are essential and the executive has asked us to try and do surveys in conjunction with our clinics.
As we were unable to run a medical clinic we switched our resources into doing a survey of Muhib Banda Pabbi. This area was devastated by the floods with 90% of dwellings being wiped off the map. We did a detail survey of 37 surviving houses, cataloguing the numbers of people present. From this it is possible to produce an average occupant per dwelling, multiply this by the number of dwellings present in similar areas and hence produce an effective needs assessment profile of a region which can be used to help us target our resources for maximum benefit. This information can also be shared with the wider aid community thus producing a much bigger and more detailed picture than can be produced by individual NGOs acting alone.
We are taking measures to obtain a doctor as soon as possible and resume our clinics.
Regards
Ijaz
