The ICRC conducts wide-ranging activities in the Russian Federation, focusing on restoring family links, income-generating projects for indigent communities in the northern Caucasus, providing sanitation aid and mine-risk education, promoting humanitarian law and supporting Russian Red Cross programmes.

In Pakistan the ICRC mainly supports hospitals treating victims of armed violence and improves access to physical rehabilitation services. It visits detainees, monitors those returning from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and US military bases in Afghanistan and enables families to maintain ties with their relatives detained abroad.

The ICRC in Pakistan focuses most of its activities on providing medical assistance and relief to the victims of armed violence and to visiting detainees and maintaining contact between those deprived of their freedom and their families.

Geneva (ICRC) - The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement has adopted a 10-year strategy aimed at strengthening help for families separated by armed conflict, natural disaster or cross-border migration to restore contact with their loved ones.

"Please cut my legs off … for God’s sake get me out … please cut my legs off and get me out." Aziz was trapped in the debris of his shop, demolished by the devastating earthquake that ravaged a region spanning parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan on 8 October 2005.

Two years after the quake that devastated Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the ICRC continues its large-scale reconstruction programmes. The following is an overview of the organization's key activities in the region in the first half of 2007.

Islamabad (ICRC) – Today in Chinari, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) handed over a completely equipped and fully functioning basic health unit (BHU) to the Ministry of Health of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Geneva/Islamabad (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has taken part in the welcome for the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in the earthquake-struck area of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Geneva/Islamabad (ICRC) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) laid the cornerstone today of the Physical Rehabilitation Centre in Muzaffarabad (PRCM), one year to the day after the devastating earthquake of 8 October 2005.

On 8 October 2005, a massive earthquake killed more than 73,000 people in Kashmir, flattening entire villages and causing enormous damage to roads and water systems. In partnership with the Pakistan Red Crescent and other participating National Societies, the ICRC responded to the urgent needs of earthquake victims, and will continue its support to repair infrastructure and restore livelihoods well into 2007.

Nearly a year after the South Asia earthquake, the ICRC's Raza Hamdani talks to volunteers who, despite their own family tragedies, went on to risk life and limb to save lives and help those in need.

As the anniversary of the devastating South Asia earthquake approaches, the ICRC’s Raza Hamdani revisits a town in Pakistan-administered Kashmir where life has slowly begun again.

For Jean-Michel Monod, head of the regional delegation in Kuwait, which covers Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, the collaborative challenges in this strategic region are many.

Restoring contact between family members separated by conflict or natural disaster is an important ICRC activity. ICRC delegate, Raza Hamdani, describes one such reunification of a Pakistani family.

The ICRC and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) are launching a joint public campaign in Pakistan today with a view to elucidating the fate of 221 persons – including 85 children – still unaccounted for since the October 2005 earthquake.

Geneva (ICRC) –A helicopter chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that went missing on 20 January has been located where it crashed in a remote, mountainous area of the Afghan province of Kapissa north-east of Kabul.

As part of its activities to help elucidate the fate of persons who have been missing since the devastating earthquake of 8 October 2005, the ICRC is currently holding a two-day workshop in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, on the management of dead bodies after disasters.

With many of their assets such as tools, seeds and animals lost as a result of the October 8 earthquake, farmers in the Neelum and Jhelum valleys in Pakistan-administered Kashmir are facing serious challenges. The ICRC is helping them by distributing materials to replace some of the losses.

Islamabad/Geneva (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) today formally handed over its 100-bed field hospital in Muzaffarabad to the Ministry of Health of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Among its activities in Jammu & Kashmir, the ICRC supports an artificial limb centre that provides hope for the disabled, both young and old. The ICRC's Mike O'Brien reports from Srinagar.

Joint message from the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Six months after, the International Committee of the Red Cross is supplying seed, fertilizer and farming implements to some 30,000 families (142,000 people) in parts of Muzaffarabad District. This video shows the challenges of this operation to be taken place until the end of this April 2006.

The earthquake on 8 October destroyed many agricultural assets in Pakistan-administered Kashmir such as tools, seeds and animals.

Health care – or the lack of it – is one of the major problems facing victims of last October’s earthquake.

On 29 March 2006, the ICRC finished distributing food and essential household items to 272,000 people affected by the earthquake. This concludes a programme that started when ICRC operations commenced last October.

In cooperation with the Fauji Foundations' Artificial Limb Centre in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, the ICRC is providing rehabilitation support services to those who lost limbs during the earthquake. ICRC employee, Raza Hamdani, reports.

Islamabad/Geneva (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirms that around noon today local time one of its Puma helicopters crashed near the Muzaffarabad heliport in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Sarah Baumgartner, a Swiss nurse and an ICRC delegate, recently returned from a remote region of Pakistan-administered Kashmir where she spent six weeks working in a clinic specifically targeted at women and children. In this interview, she talks about her experiences there.

January's favourable weather conditions allowed the ICRC to increase the volume of food distribution in remote areas affected by the earthquake. Eight helicopters and more than 50 trucks operated to deliver vital supplies to the village of Seri Dara, a remote mountain village southeast of Muzaffarabad. ICRC communication delegate Rashad Akhundov reports.

The ICRC has just completed a series of distributions of corrugated iron sheeting for 10,912 families affected by the recent earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The material is being used to build temporary shelters more suitable than simple tents.

A week has passed since an MI-8 helicopter operated by Turkmenistan Airlines and chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross for its earthquake relief operations in Pakistan went missing after taking off from the Pakistani city of Peshawar for its home base in Turkmenabad, Turkmenistan.

Islamabad (ICRC) – A helicopter chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for its earthquake relief operations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir went missing on 20 January.

It has been nearly three months since a massive earthquake devastated parts of Pakistan and India but even now the ICRC and the Pakistani Red Crescent Society are still trying to reunite families torn apart by the tragedy. The ICRC's Raza Hamdani reports on a recent family reunion.

ICRC delegate, Jessica Barry, describes how an ICRC supported venture in Chinari has provided space for people to grieve.

Latest report on ICRC activities

Almost twelve months on, Reto Meister, the ICRC's delegate-general for Asia and the Pacific, talks about the ICRC's response to the tsunami.

When I first saw Fazal Noor, she was standing wrapped in a green shawl with a group of other women in the village of Cham, in the Jhelum valley, east of Muzaffarabad. Gaunt-faced and wrinkled with a protruding tooth, she stood huddled up against the cold of a November afternoon, unsmiling.

Geneva (ICRC) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is asking donors for more than 1 billion Swiss francs to fund its humanitarian work in some 80 countries in 2006.

At the best of times their lives are hard. And now, the Guja nomads of Lari village have even fewer ways than usual to withstand the onset of winter. A report by Jessica Barry.

Geneva (ICRC) - The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, is in Vienna today for talks with the Austrian foreign minister, Ursula Plassnik.

In any catastrophe, the elderly and the young are particularly at risk and the South Asia earthquake has been no exception. The photographer, Fred Clarke, has just returned from Pakistan-administered Kashmir and has put together separate photo collections that focus on these two groups.

Latest report on ICRC activities.

In any catastrophe, the elderly and the young are particularly at risk and the South Asia earthquake has been no exception. The photographer, Fred Clarke, has just returned from Pakistan-administered Kashmir and has put together separate photo collections that focus on these two groups.

In an effort to reach remote villages soon to be cut off from the outside world by snow, the ICRC is continuing its deliveries of essential goods to the quake survivors with its fleet of helicopters. ICRC's Jessica Barry reports.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

Maps of ICRC operations in the area of the earthquake

The generosity of ordinary Pakistanis in response to the 8th October earthquake is manifest everywhere in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Take the Karwan-e-Muhabbat for example. ICRC's Jessica Barry reports.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

On his return from a visit to Pakistan-administered Kashmir last week, the ICRC's president, Jakob Kellenberger, has said that the organization will remain committed to helping the victims of the earthquake disaster.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

Geneva/Islamabad (ICRC) – The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, today met with the Pakistan's President Perez Musharraf in Rawalpindi.

Three weeks after the earthquake in Pakistan, surgeons are surprised to see a continued flow of injured from remote areas. Jon Bjorgvinsson reports.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

Jean-François Berger, the editor in chief of the Red Cross Red Crescent Magazine, travels with an ICRC team distributing essential relief items to a remote mountain village.

Geneva (ICRC) - On arriving in Pakistan today, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, said that every effort must be made to enable victims of the earthquake to remain in or close to their villages over the winter.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

From the ICRC chopper we see a dreadful and graphic pattern of destruction: collapsed homes with tin roofs, buildings smashed, roads cut by landslides and fallen rocks and, from time to time, houses still standing with an air of normality.

The ICRC's Jean-François Berger accompanies a Finnish Red Cross mobile medical team as they treat patients injured during the earthquake.

Having just returned from Pakistan-administered Kashmir where they have been involved in relief operations, ICRC staff have been speaking about the extent of the damage and the humanitarian challenges ahead.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

Geneva (ICRC) – A 100-bed field hospital was opened in Muzaffarabad today by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Its first patient was a girl with a broken and badly infected leg, a type of injury all too frequent as a result of the earthquake.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

ICRC employee, Raza Hamdani has been closely involved in the relief efforts in relation to the South Asia earthquake and kept a diary of events in the days following the disaster.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in South Asia, the ICRC has issued an emergency appeal for additional funding and is concentrating its relief efforts on providing medical assistance, shelter, food and water to those affected.

The Speaker of the National Assembly in Pakistan, the Honourable Chaudhry Amir Hussain, has met with the ICRC's vice-president, Jacques Forster at the organization's Geneva headquarters to discuss the ICRC's involvement in relief efforts.

Geneva (ICRC) – The immediate priority of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for its emergency-aid programme in Pakistan-administered Kashmir is to provide medical care, protection from the cold, food and water, the need for which will remain acute at least until the winter ends next April.

The ICRC is helping to evacuate those in urgent need of medical attention from some of the areas worst hit by the South Asia earthquake, with helicopters transporting patients to where they can better receive treatment. Story by ICRC delegate, Raza Hamdani

Reto Meister, the ICRC's delegate-general for Asia, briefs the press on the South Asia earthquake emergency

Working in close cooperation with the Indian and Pakistan National Societies, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and other components of the Movement, the ICRC has mounted a large-scale operation to assess and respond in the most effective and timely way possible to the most urgent needs of the earthquake victims.

Raza Hamdani, ICRC media officer in Islamabad, gives his account of the disaster that wrecked havoc throughout the region Saturday 8 October in the first hours of the morning.

Geneva (ICRC) – Saturday’s earthquake in South Asia has left tens of thousands dead or missing.