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Barkat is 80 years old. He and his wife were home in the village of Shand in Pakistan when the 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the region of Mashkail last month. They lost everything, their belongings and their house. They were forced to live in the open air as Barkat did not have the energy to build a shelter. They were exposed to the elements as well as insects. They were about to lose hope when Balochistan Rural Support Programme (BRSP) found them and gave them a ShelterBox disaster relief tent.
BRSP has been ShelterBox’s implementing partner in Pakistan, distributing emergency shelter to the most vulnerable families affected by the quake, like Barkat and his wife.
‘We are very grateful to BRSP and ShelterBox for their support, which has kept us safe,’ said Barkat.
ShelterBox was able to respond quickly to the disaster as the charity has aid prepositioned in Islamabad with the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP), a partner that ShelterBox has worked with on previous responses in Pakistan.
‘It has been a truly collaborative effort,’ said Fateh Shah Arif, BRSP’s Emergency Response Manager. ‘Through the professional coordination of ShelterBox, NRSP and BRSP, tents were en route to the disaster zone quickly after the quake struck. Consequently we have been able to bring shelter and hope to hundreds of families highly efficiently and rapidly.
‘Our partnership with ShelterBox is not just for now, it is for the future too.’
