Press centre

News note

Copy of UNICEF flights to earthquake zone in Pakistan

New York/Geneva 14 October 2005 – UNICEF announced today that it has five flights loaded with blankets and nutritional biscuits landing in Pakistan over the weekend, and seven more scheduled for next week and beyond with almost 100,000 blankets.

UNICEF was able to send supplies into the earthquake zone within hours of the disaster because of UK government-supported preparedness planning, which meant that stocks has been pre-positioned throughout the region.

UNICEF has established forward operations centres in the worst hit cities of Mansehra and Mufazzarabad. Supplies are being trucked from Peshawar into Mansehra, and taken by Pakistan army helicopters to remote villages and hamlets. Injured children are being ferried back from these villages by the same helicopters to hospital.

Two planeloads of UNICEF supplies arrived in Pakistan on Friday night.

In addition UNICEF is:

• Opening other forward operation centres in Batagram, Bagh, and Shangla, along with the rest of the UN family.
• Devising a measles campaign with the government.
• Installing with the government a water plant in Muzaffarabad
• Assessing schools and the education system in the affected area.

For more information, please contact:

Gordon Weiss, UNICEF NY, 212-326-7426