Hunger threatens Pakistan flood survivors as winter closes in

British Red Cross
Contact: Mark South, msouth@redcross.org.uk
October 15 2010 14:53 Millions of people who lost homes, crops and food stores to the Pakistan floods are facing a winter of hunger unless more money is found. The Red Cross movement has already distributed emergency food parcels for more than 1.3m people, but with this year’s crops destroyed and fields in no condition for planting, a second round of aid to provide food for the winter is vital. Funding for these distributions, however, is short. “The emergency is far from over,” said David Peppiatt, international director of the British Red Cross. “Malnutrition rates have risen to 14 per cent and an estimated 30-50% of children arriving at health facilities have shown symptoms of acute malnutrition. “Because of the destruction, people simply have no way to feed themselves – it will be almost a year before many farmers can bring in another harvest. That means people are going to go hungry unless we get help to them, and at the moment we simply don’t have the money to do that.” …

Hunger Threatens Pakistan Flood Survivors as Winter Closes In