JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Their faces are grizzled and deeply furrowed, even though the youngest of the eight is only in his early 30s. They greet me one by one, the shaking of my hand accompanied by the Arabic Muslim greeting “As-salam-aleikum.” They’ve kindly come to the International Rescue Committee office in the eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad to tell me of the experiences that led them to receive assistance from the IRC and how their lives have been since.

SINDH PROVINCE, Pakistan - Farmers who lost their rice crops in the record floods of 2010 transplant seedlings from an International Rescue Committee paddy to be replanted in their own fields. The IRC has supplied seed and fertiliser, and funded the repair of irrigation culverts in much of rural Sindh province.

By Euan Robinson

“The day the floods came, we lost everything we had – our houses, money, cattle and infrastructure were all totally destroyed.” Razia Sultana

For people across Sindh province, last year’s floods changed everything. Today, I visited Tart Moriyo, a village near Shikarpur which, like so many communities across Sindh, saw its way of life washed away by the rising water.

If you’re ever feeling cynical about human nature, I’d like you to meet Muhammad*. He’s an International Rescue Committee (IRC) colleague who has performed humanitarian work for more than a decade. However, unless you’re a Pakistani living near the Afghan border, you’ll have a hard time finding him! I‘m fortunate, Muhammad is a colleague of mine, and was in the capital Islamabad recently.

On 12 July the International Rescue Committee UK will be holding ‘After the Flood: Pakistan, One Year On’, an event featuring a short film screening and discussion on the continued impact of the 2010 floods. Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA, 12 July from 3-4pm Speakers:

One year ago the Pakistani military launched an offensive to drive Taliban militants from Pakistan's Swat Valley. More than two million people fled the fighting, provoking a massive humanitarian crisis. Now, the worst floods in Pakistan's history have created even greater destruction and displacement. I am travelling with a team of IRC aid workers who are helping to clear 12 miles (20km) of dirt track south of Kahlan, a village that has been cut off from the outside world since flood waters submerged all roads in the area.

The International Rescue Committee is preparing to bring badly-needed help to victims of the devastating monsoon floods that have killed an estimated 400 people and are believed to have displaced nearly half a million in Pakistan. The IRC's Pakistan Country Director Tammy Hasselfeldt said that while the monsoons have severely impacted people across the country, the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa - formerly known as North-West Frontier Province - has been especially devastated by the rains.

Nearly a year since more than three million people were displaced by military operations in north-west Pakistan, the crisis is far from over. More than 1.3 million people are displaced, dependent on emergency relief to survive, yet funding for the emergency response is drying up, according to a group of leading aid agencies working in the country.

Over the last month world attention has focused on the hundreds of thousands of displaced people who have returned to their homes in Pakistan's conflict-ridden Swat Valley. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and other aid groups are helping these people rebuild their communities and lives.

By Peter Biro