Canadian minister visits flood-hit areas in Chitral

CHITRAL: The Minister of International Development for Canada, Harjit Sajjan, visited the areas devastated by floods in different parts of Pakistan on Wednesday, says a press release.

He visited Chitral, a flood-affected district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and was accompanied by High Commissioner of Canada to Pakistan, Ms Wendy Christine Gilmour and Ms Iqra Khalid, Member of Parliament in Canada, President Ismaili Council for Pakistan, Hafiz Sherali, and CEO Aga Khan Foundation Pakistan Akhtar Iqbal. Minister Sajjan interacted with the communities in Chitral and observed the Aga Khan Development Network’s (AKDN’s) flood response and early recovery efforts in severely-hit areas.

The Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH), AKDN’s lead response agency for the floods, evacuated over 9,000 people from affected areas while more than 4,000 families have been provided with food packages since the start of the flooding.

Healthcare camps have been set up in several parts of the country by the Aga Khan University and Aga Khan Health Service where over 50,000 patients have been treated in Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The minister also visited Brep, a flood-affected village in Chitral. He had discussions around climate change resilience, youth employment and women empowerment and visited areas where the current Global Affairs Canada (GAC) supported programmes of Broadening Economic and Social Transformation for Women’s Economic Empowerment and Recovery (BEST4WEER), Foundations for Health and Empowerment (F4HE) and Sehatmand Khandaan (SMK) are being implemented by AKDN agencies.

These programmes focus on creating an enabling environment for women’s empowerment and to improve the health and well-being, and enhance the equitable development and empowerment, of women, girls, their families, and their communities.

For nearly four decades, AKDN has partnered with the government of Canada on numerous initiatives that encompasses rural development programmes, youth employment, education, and women empowerment to improve the quality of lives of vulnerable communities.

There has been a long-standing relationship between Pakistan and Canada. Canada has shown its concern at this critical time and have committed to support the efforts of the government in relief activities within the country.

The Aga Khan Agency for Habitat works to ensure that the places people live are as safe as possible from the effects of climate change and natural disasters while also helping them to be prepared to cope with and respond to disasters that do strike. Beyond safety, AKAH aims to ensure people have access to services and opportunities to improve their quality of life.