A team of 5 left for Pakistan on 15 Oct 05, a week after the earthquake. Three of the members returned on 22 Oct 05, I myself came back on 25 Oct 05, while one CRS member stayed behind to coordinate the relief effort.

Purpose of the recce trip:

• To seek like-minded local partners to start relief and reconstruction work in an identified area
• To assess needs and set up the necessary logistics for future teams from Singapore

For the first part of the trip, on the recommendation of our host, we went to the areas in Kaghan valley. Our first stop was at Balakot which was almost completely flattened by the earthquake. We decided to set up base at the NGOs camp coordinated by the Pakistan Army. As there were already a number of doctors from the various NGOs operating in the town, we went beyond as far as the road can take us to survey the place and to run mobile clinic by the road side. We also visited two Christian hospitals; Kunhar Christian Hospital at Gari Habibullah (between Maneshra and Balakot) and Bach Christian Hospital (near Abbottabad). The purpose is to facilitate orthopedic surgeons from Singapore to work in the hospitals.

For the second part of the trip, we visited Bagh in Kashmir with another host. They have already started work in the place 20 km from Bagh town. This includes medical clinic and giving out relief supplies such as tents, blankets, mattresses and food. They have good favor from the army and were given permission to set up their base in the army camp (they are the only NGO) to reach out to the surrounding villages. So far, two of the villages have been served. The first ridge has more than 300 families, and there are more families beyond. With the arrival of a doctor and a nurse and together with one of the recce team member who stayed behind, we have already started mobile medical clinic. Besides seeing patients at the base camp, each day the doctor and nurse will hike to the villages to see patients. For further places which involve 3 or more hours of walking, the team will camp overnight at the villages.

As in previous CRS projects, our strategy is to team up with a credible local partner who is committed to help the people in the disaster area on a longer term basis beyond immediate relief. CRS will provide whatever help within its means to assist the local partner to do their work. In this way, CRS seeks to establish continuity of help to the survivors of the earthquake for a longer term impact.