Dear Friends,

The Labour Relief Committee (LRC) is now in its 3^rd month of activities and we would like to thank you
for supporting it and give you some updates on the work we are doing.

We are working in 4 provinces: Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab. Our teams of
volunteers are composed in majority of people who are affected by the floods as well as members of
social organizations and trade unionists. The great work the volunteers of LRC has been doing since
the beginning lead some international organizations to collaborate with them which gave rise to more
ambitious projects in some areas.

At the beginning of the floods, we mostly focused our efforts on distributing food, medicine and
clothes. Now that the water level has gone down in most of the areas, we shifted our effort towards
rehabilitation and reconstruction. Our first step was to conduct surveys in each of the areas,
interviewing each family to assess the damages caused to them so that we can identify smaller areas
where to work and deliver the aid in a systematic way to those who need it the most. In some area, we
are still working on the surveys, in some others areas we have already completed it and it has guided us
for the choice of a particular project to conduct.

Here are some updates form the areas where we are working:

Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa:

• Community Kitchen

In Noshera district, LRC is working in collaboration with TDH on two community kitchens. They
are delivering food for over 750 people everyday at lunch time. Two cooks have been hired for
this project and a team of 10 volunteers is working with them. Food is being cooked according
to nutritional requirements for women and children.

• Tool kits distributions

In Noshera district again, LRC and Swiss Labour Assistance are distributing tool kits to those
whose house have been completely destroyed in order to help them cleaning the rubbles and
rebuild a shelter.

• Agriculture in Swat

The LRC visited Swat district recently.In an area that suffered the attacks of the talibans
militants, and the military operation, the floods has now destroyed most of the land. LRC would
like to help by providing agricultural tools, fertilizers and seeds as well as by helping rehabilitate
some of the agricultural infrastructure like irrigation channels, water mills etc.

• Afghan refugee camps

We are supporting 80 families in an refugee camp near the Afghani border that has been destructed by the floods by providing them food as well as other items. We are planning to help
them toward reconstruction as well.

Sindh

In Sindh district, relief work is still a top priority as thousand of people are still displaced. We
are still distributing relief good the refugee camps. We have also been distributing the UN relief
good under their request.

• Cooperatives

In Thatta district, one of the most badly affected ones, we are now planning to support projects
of agro-based cooperatives. Many of the affected families were working for contactors or
landlords in activities such as poulty farming, fishing farming, dairy farm and traditional weaving.
We want to buy some land and help communities of about 10 families to restart their activities
together in the form of a cooperative. Our comrade trade unionists from LRC Sindh already
have the experience of starting and supporting two cooperatives which are now self relying.

Balochistan

Because the road infrastructure as well as the communications networks have been badly
affected in Balochistan, the coordination of our efforts in this province has been difficult.
Immediate relief goods were first distributed in Sibbi district as some of our comrades were
there. Now we have decided to focus our efforts in Kohlu district that is the most badly hit
district in the province and has received very little help from any other organizations. We are at
the moment conducting a survey in Kohlu to determine what will be our priorities in helping the
people of this area.

Punjab

In the southern part of Punjab too we are at the moment going from houses to houses in order
to complete a survey of 6 districts in order to decide on an area where to work.

Apart from the relief work, we have also launched – using separate funds – a political campaign for the
cancellation of the external debt of Pakistan in favor of the flood victims. We have organized several
rallies in the major cities and this week we have distributed 100 000 leaflets in the street of Lahore.

You will find many more information about our work on our blog: http://
labourreliefcampaign.blogspot.com

In Solidarity,

The Labour Relief Committee