After six months in a tent by the Jhelum river in Muzaffarabad, the ruined capital of Pakistani Kashmir, it is time for Jumadali Khokar to go home. Today marks the official start of the reconstruction phase of the region’s recovery from the devastating earthquake that struck on October 8, killing 73,000 and displacing 2.5m.

For Jan Vandemoortele, the United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator, the formal end of the relief phase of his mission is cause for celebration. “It’s beyond belief that we’re beyond relief,” he says. “Six months ago, there was a sense of hopelessness. Many predicted a second wave of deaths, disease and epidemic, but it didn’t happen.”