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GlaxoSmithKline's response to floods in Pakistan

August 2010

Monsoon rains at the start of August 2010 triggered massive floods in Pakistan's Khyber-Paktunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh provinces, killing an estimated 1,600 people and affecting up to 20 million.

GSK Pakistan responded promptly with donations of medicine and cash, working with a number of organisations in all flood-affected areas to provide shelter, clean water, healthcare and food.

In the immediate aftermath of the floods, GSK Pakistan donated urgently needed medicines to a variety of leading relief aid agencies such as the Abaseen Foundation, the first organisation to reach 20,000 people in the remote Swat valley, and International Medical Corps, also among the first-responders in the area, which rapidly mobilised an additional six medical teams to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. Armed with sufficient supplies to treat 40,000 patients for one month, they were able to begin immediate treatment of the most pressing medical cases, such as acute diarrhoea, skin diseases and acute respiratory infections.

GSK Pakistan also provided medicines to several other relief agencies reaching areas further south. For example, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), working in Sindh, where widespread destruction had displaced an estimated 3.5 million people from their homes, and also the Pakistan’s National Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Centre (HEPR) as well as The National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) reaching over 80,000 patients in mobile medical camps in all the flood affected districts.

In addition to donations of medicines, GSK made a cash contribution of £100,000 to support agencies organising food and medicines distribution, including £60,000 for the World Food Programme (WFP) £15,000 to the International Red Crescent (IRC) and £25,000 worth of medicines to the provincial government agencies reaching some of the remotest areas.

GSK Pakistan employees also made contributions in cash and in kind and globally, employees made personal donations in response to international appeals launched by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Appeal, International Medical Corps and the American Red Cross.