Relief International teams on the ground are responding to the major outbreak of COVID-19 in Pakistan by providing hygiene kits to Afghan refugee families who will be hardest hit by the pandemic. These hygiene kits contain items such as soap, hand sanitizer, and masks, to help families protect themselves against the virus.
Pakistan hosts more than 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees, with most estimates suggesting that a million more immigrants live in Pakistan without proper documentation. The majority of the country’s refugee population live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province located along the Afghan border.
Many of these families were living in already vulnerable situations before the outbreak. Pictured here, our staff respond to this latest crisis by providing hygiene kits to men, women, and children living in refugee settlements in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province:
Pictured above, Relief International staff unload boxes of personal protective equipment, or PPEs, and hygiene supplies at a warehouse in Peshawar, the capital city of Khyber Pakhtunkwa province. Shortly thereafter, on May 19 and 20, Relief International staff carefully conducted a two-day distribution for men, women, and children living in eight refugee settlements in Peshawar. Our teams distributed 145 hygiene kits to refugee families in the area with plans to distribute additional kits after the Eid holidays.
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In most places, refugees are at the greatest risk for contracting the virus as they often live in overcrowded settings that share water points, toilets, and other vital services. Two weeks ago, families stood six feet apart as they received hygiene kits filled with soap, hand sanitizer, and masks.
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Hameeda Zawar, a Community Mobilizer with Relief International, shows a young refugee girl how to wash her hands using items in the kit, as a means to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Peshawar, Pakistan. This information is vital in preventing the virus's spread amongst people living in already vulnerable situations.
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