DHL extends relief efforts in Pakistan
Added: 16/09/2010 Reporter: Peter James
DHL's Disaster Response Team in Pakistan will be staying for an additional two weeks following a request by both the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in Pakistan and the United Nations.
Pakistan is still dependent on international assistance and efficient logistics support at the airport in Islamabad after floods that devastated parts of the country during August.
With the extended deployment period, the DHL Disaster Response Team will spend a total of five weeks on site. Its members will continue to ensure fast, efficient unloading of incoming relief goods at the airport in Islamabad as well as the clear sorting of these supplies and palletising for further distribution.
Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Post DHL Frank Appel said, "To date, our employees have handled 2,632 tons of relief supplies and assembled 2,500 special emergency packs for remote areas. Due to the nature of the disaster, the situation in Pakistan is improving only slowly which is why we decided to keep our Disaster Response Team on the ground."
The DHL Disaster Response Team has been working in the military section of the Islamabad airport since the 26th of August. Typical supplies going being unloaded by the team include food, water, tents, tarpaulins, cloth, and hygienic articles. The DHL Disaster Response Team then prepares them for further transport into the country. A special challenge is the handling of unsolicited goods that often arrive damaged and that need to be sorted and repacked before further transport.
In the first three weeks of deployment, the on-site team was staffed by 20 volunteers who rotated out on a weekly basis. Over the course of the next two weeks, some 8-10 new colleagues from the DHL Disaster Response Team pool of 200 volunteers will be sent to strengthen the relief efforts.
