When the Mountains Move: Courage, Preparation, and the Communities FOCUS Stands With in Pakistan
Pakistan’s northern highlands are among the most disaster-prone places on earth. In Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral, earthquakes can split valley floors without warning, and monsoon rains can trigger landslides overnight. The region is also vulnerable to glacial lake outburst floods, known as GLOFs. These happen when a massive glacier sitting atop a mountain melts rapidly, sending […]
When Training Becomes Confidence: FOCUS Pakistan’s Legacy in Chitral
On the morning of July 2, 2025, a mini-truck lost control on the steep, narrow roads of Bumburate Valley in Chitral and plunged down a hillside. What could have become a tragedy instead became a testament to what years of emergency preparedness in a community can produce. Within minutes, FOCUS-trained Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) […]
From Seeds of Support to Shelter from the Storm: FOCUS’s Legacy in Afghanistan
For decades, FOCUS donors made a quiet but profound investment in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. Before the organizations could implement the life-saving infrastructure that exists in Badakhshan today, it was FOCUS donor support and volunteer participation that helped lay the groundwork, building the relationships, the community trust, and the institutional presence that […]
Water Returns to Boghev: Reconstructing an Irrigation Channel High in the Mountains of Tajikistan
Boghev village sits nearly 8,000 feet above sea level in a remote, mountainous region of Gorno Badakhshan in Tajikistan, an area often struck by landslides and rockfalls. In a place like this, water for farming does not come easily. In 2025, the village’s irrigation channel was rebuilt to make that water more dependable, an effort […]
Flash Floods in Afghanistan: A Unified AKDN Response
“We are often at risk of floods, but whenever we see the AKAH team, a new sense of hope is restored in us.” A female resident of Pul-e-Khumri in Baghlan Province. In early April 2026, heavy rainfall swept through northern and northeastern Afghanistan, sending flash floods tearing through communities in Baghlan, Badakhshan, Takhar, and surrounding […]
I was a nursing student in Afghanistan…
Now I am rebuilding my life in Canada as a healthcare professional. Forced to flee Afghanistan, Dilruba Hussaini was living as a refugee in India. Dilruba’s international training qualified her to work at Chancellor Park, a long-term continuing care facility in St. John’s NF. Read Hussaini’s story.
