With great pains, assistance is delivered to isolated villages in Kashmir

In a race against the clock, an MSF team works through the villages in the area - actually a series of houses scattered along the steep sides of the valley - to identify the families where the needs are most urgent.

After having looked at the situation of each family, the MSF team has a chart showing those who will need help building a shelter for the winter. This chart will allow the families a supply kit which will be given to them in the coming days.

The kit includes sheets of corrugated iron, a cover, building equipment, blankets, kitchen utensils and hygiene supplies. But to be able to get this help the inhabitants of Dilowali will have to go to the Pir Hadji mountain pass, some 20 kilometers distant. The trucks that have brought the assistance from Islamabad, two days travel by road, but cannot continue on the road - now just a path - that descends into the valley.