Mercy Corps Deploys GEO Team to Islamabad

Mercy Corps International
Sunday, 7 October 2001

Team Prepares Contingency Plans for Refugee Influx;Taliban Takes Over Agency's Kandahar Office

Mercy Corps is preparing a major humanitarian relief effort in Afghanistan and surrounding countries. The agency's Global Emergency Operations team (GEO) is being deployed to Islamabad, Pakistan, to join staff already on the ground there. Mercy Corps' international staff had relocated to Islamabad recently from Afghanistan and the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta due to heightened tensions in the region.

Mercy Corps received word today that the agency's office in Kandahar, Afghanistan was taken over by the Taliban, further hampering Mercy Corps' operations in that area. Smaller field offices remain open. Mercy Corps will continue to provide lifesaving services in Afghanistan wherever possible. Work in the Helmand province is ongoing, where Mercy Corps' network of health facilities serves a population of 370,000 people. Mercy Corps programs in Northern Alliance-controlled areas (Badakshan and Takhar provinces) continue uninterrupted, serving an increasing number of internally displaced persons with blankets, bedding, stoves, water, fuel, and clothing.

The GEO team has been deployed to help Mercy Corps' Afghanistan/Pakistan staff prepare contingency plans that focus on setting up refugee camps and providing emergency services to large numbers of potential refugees. Mercy Corps is preparing to provide health, water, and sanitation services at refugee camps. The GEO team has special training and expertise in logistics, information technology, refugee camp management, and food and commodities distribution systems.

Contingency planning is also underway in neighboring Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, where Mercy Corps has long-term economic development and humanitarian aid programs.

Mercy Corps has 15 years of experience in Afghanistan/Pakistan providing humanitarian aid and administering long-term community development programs. The agency currently employs 400 national staff in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This year Mercy Corps assisted more than 600,000 people with drought relief and rehabilitation services, food aid, agricultural support programs, veterinary care for livestock, engineering and drilling wells, health, and sanitation projects. Since 1986, Mercy Corps has delivered more than $20 million in assistance to Afghanistan.

For more information, or to contact Mercy Corps International, see their website at: www.mercycorps.org