AKDN | Disaster Preparedness and Response

We have mapped, and actively monitor, 37 remote hazards such as glaciers and glacial lakes in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. We have set up early warning systems that cover almost 400 villages. Local knowledge and field surveys with remote sensing and geospatial data help communities develop Hazard, Vulnerability and Risk Assessments (HVRAs). These enable us to reinforce, protect and relocate homes and critical infrastructure – building flood retaining walls, retrofitting buildings, strengthening bridges or stabilising slopes.

We help to keep access to communications, roads and bridges, and transport available, enabling early warnings and safe evacuations.

We have trained a network of almost 40,000 volunteers in community emergency response, search and rescue, and disaster assessment and response. Our community education programmes cover alerts, communication, stockpiling, evacuation plans, exit routes and more. We also work with schools to ensure that facilities are safe, promote risk education and support disaster planning.

We carry out evacuation and relief operations after incidents such as floods and earthquakes.

Earthquake Response

After the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, for example, Focus Humanitarian Assistance – now part of AKAH – carried out evacuation and relief operations in more than a dozen locations, including some of the most remote and difficult-to-access areas. We delivered food items to more than 70,000 people, distributed over 1,100 tents and more than 14,000 blankets, and evacuated over 900 casualties from vulnerable locations.

The Aga Khan University, the Aga Khan University Hospital and the Aga Khan Health Services provided extensive emergency medical support through more than 80 doctors (including physicians, surgeons, paediatricians, anaesthesiologists and other medical specialists), 40 nurses and teams of medical technicians, field officers and medical students.

Over 350 trauma patients were treated, 10,000 people were provided with emergency or basic health care, and nursing, medical and psychiatric training was extended. AKDN mobilised over 1,000 volunteers. Throughout, we worked closely with various government ministries and departments, UN agencies, and international multilateral and bilateral partners.

Flood Relief

In 2018, two villages in Gilgit-Baltistan were hit by a glacial lake outburst flood, forming an artificial lake. Owing to ours disaster risk mitigation work and the training of Community Emergency Response teams, about 1,000 people were safely evacuated and no lives were lost.

We worked closely with the district government, the Pakistan Army and the Gilgit-Baltistan Disaster Management Authority to help those affected. Food, medicines, tarpaulins and tents were supplied with the help of AKDN and army helicopters, and temporary shelters were provided for 450 people. We mobilised a medical team, working with the Government Health Department to provide medical services to over 90 patients.

In the recovery stage, AKDN institutions help communities rebuild so that they can function on their own and return to normal development activity and progress. We aim to make their habitats good places to live in the long term, with safety, facilities and opportunities. We work to protect against future hazards, help residents adapt to climate change and its results, and lay the groundwork for ongoing progress. We also seek to protect the environment from further destabilisation, planting trees and vegetation and using local and low-carbon materials.