The Pakistan earthquake appeal has been extended till the end of 2009 with the targeted number of beneficiaries to remain the same.

The budget has been increased by 1.9 per cent. The overall expenditure against the revised budget is 76 per cent.

Three years after the earthquake, the operation in the country has entered the final stages of rehabilitation phase.

The main focus now is on health and care, water and sanitation, livelihoods, completion of 34 construction projects and allied transition from this long-term emergency appeal.

The first of these projects (a girls’ middle school) is completed and was handed over to the local authorities in August 2008.

While catering to the people affected from small-scale floods (relatively less disastrous than in 2007) in summer 2008, the national society provided health and care services to more than 8,000 people and distributed food and non-food items to approximately 3,300 families.