Four months have passed since floods submerged one-fifth of Pakistan’s land area,
killing 2,000 people and affecting over 20 million more. Now, many families have left
refugee camps to return to their homes, only to find total destruction of their property
and crops.
The onslaught of winter is compounding the hardships faced by millions
of Pakistan’s flood victims, and aid groups are struggling to prepare them the dropping
temperatures.
“With 20 million people affected, resources are still scarce,”
says Oscar Butragueño, Emergency Coordinator for the UN Children’s Fund in Pakistan.
As
snow begins to fall in the north, the season will worsen the threat of respiratory
infections and malnutrition – the biggest killers of Pakistani children.
Butragueño
says new cases of polio are also being reported.
“Last year we had 89 cases,”
he told Vatican Radio. “Unfortunately this year we already have 125.”
Listen
to Oscar Butragueño’s full interview with Kelsea Brennan-Wessels: