ISLAMABAD: The Benazir Inc­ome Support Programme has said that the social safety network is providing Rs25000 to each family in flood-hit areas of the country, and so far the programme has disbursed more than Rs19.8 billion under the programme.

According to a press release issued on Monday, as many as 793,701 affected families had recei­ved the humanitarian financial aid under the BISP’s Flood Relief Emer­gency Cash Assistance Programme.

In Balochistan 90,396 families received Rs2.25bn; 466,045 families in Sindh received Rs11.6bn; 98,677 families of KP received Rs2.4bn; and 138,583 families in Punjab received Rs3.4bn.

All payment centres have been kept open on holidays for disbursement of payments to affected families.

Unicef delivers life-saving emergency supplies

The administration of the Benazir Income Support Programme has directed the staff concerned at campsites to facilitate the affected people in their respective regions.

The affected families have been asked to send their CNIC numbers to 8171 for registration in the Flood Relief Cash Assistance Programme of BISP and upon receiving the payment message they should visit their nearby campsite to receive the cash payment.

A control room has also been set up at the Benazir Income Support Programme headquarters to ensure smooth payment of cash to flood-affected families.

Million Meals Programme

Meanwhile, PepsiCo Pakistan has announced a nationwide Millions of Meals programme to deliver emergency food assistance of five million meals to people hit by severe flooding in the country’s worst-hit districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab.

The Millions of Meals programme is part of the global food security plat­form Food for Good to make meals more accessible to communities.

Unicef help

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) on Monday delivered 32 metric tons of life-saving medical and other emergency supplies to support children and women hit by floods.

According to a statement, the shipment includes medicines, medical supplies, water purifying tablets, safe delivery kits and therapeutic nutritional supplements.

The UN organisation handed over the supplies to the Government of Pakistan, represented by Sindh’s Ministry of Health and Population Welfare.

A second shipment of 34 metric tons of humanitarian supplies is expected to arrive on Tuesday, carrying medicines to treat parasitic infections, resuscitation and sterilisation kits, micronutrients for pregnant women, educational supplies, and recreational kits to help children cope with the trauma.

Germany’s food assistance

The German Federal Foreign Office has announced that it is providing food for the next two months for 1,000 particularly hard-hit families in Balochistan via the Consulate-General in Karachi.

“We are also making available food and medical supplies for another 60,000 people via the German Red Cross,” a German government announcement said.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2022