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USAID-Trained Carpenters Build Shelters For Vulnerable Families -- 6,000 Families Settle Into Shelters --
03/14/2006Islamabad - More than 6,000 families left homeless by the October 8 earthquake in Kashmir's Bagh District received materials and supplies from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to build shelters. To help households headed by widows, the disabled, the elderly, or those that did not have a healthy adult male to build their shelters, USAID, through partner American Refugee Committee, trained more than 130 carpenters in earthquake-resistant design and paid the carpenters to construct shelters for the 1,250 families unable to build for themselves.
To guide them in safe building practices, carpenters learned how to assess a site for safety, create strong internal support for shelter frames, fortify timber joints with metal strips and use insulation. Each family received 10 corrugated iron sheets, insulation material, tools and household supplies to construct their shelters.
Paid 700 rupees ($11.66) a day through a USAID cash-for-work program, the carpenters first built shelters for vulnerable families in high-altitude villages at greatest risk from heavy snowfall. The rupees the carpenters received for their work also helped stimulate economic activity at the village level. Quality control monitors examined each craftsman's work for compliance with earthquake safety specifications. Non-compliant work had to be redone. In addition, carpenters erected two 18' by 10' model shelters in each of three union councils to demonstrate safe building practices to all residents.
"We were very aware of our responsibility and worked very carefully," said Mohammed Fareed, a carpenter in Bagh District. "We didn't want a family to be hurt one day because of an error on our part." Azeem Husain Shah, a carpenter from Islam Nagar village, said the training was invaluable. "We have learned a lot," Shah said. "We didn't know much about these things before."
Most residents are now well-settled in their transitional shelters and are gathering resources for rebuilding their permanent homes. "Thank God, we have a roof and are safe from the rain," said Bilquis Akhter, a Saver Kalloo resident.
This USAID program trains skilled tradesmen in building practices, encourages them to pass the knowledge on to others, helps hundreds of vulnerable households build safer shelter and brings economic activity into local markets as carpenters spend their wages.
The United States, through USAID, is providing more than $1.5 billion in development assistance to Pakistan over the next five years to improve education, health, governance and economic growth. In addition, the United States has pledged a total of $510 million in earthquake relief and reconstruction efforts to assist the people of Pakistan and to support Pakistani government relief and reconstruction efforts.