Church World Service--Stories on earthquake recovery in Pakiston

The American Public has not been getting a lot of information about the earthquake that hit northern Pakistan. We are sharing several postings from Church World Service about its assessment of the situation.

"Each Tent Saves a Family"

Battagram Base, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan--October 17--The earthquake that hit northern Pakistan on Oct 8, 2005, has shattered millions of lives. The survivors are in desperate need of help. The government; Church World Service and other aid agencies; and the Pakistan Army are carrying out desperate relief efforts to reach those survivors who are based in far-flung areas that are hardest to reach. Relief efforts are being hampered due to mudslides and heavy rain and hail storms. Snowfall has also started in some areas. The aftershocks continue to remind the survivors of the terrible disaster that changed their lives on October 8, 2005.

Amid these challenges, Church World Service has been able to mobilize and distribute shelter kits and food packages in North West Frontier Province. The Pakistan Army has been very cooperative in this regard, and has been airlifting Church World Service (CWS) relief good to areas of Allai-Battagram that are not reachable through roads.

Applauding CWS efforts, Col. Zakeer, at Battagram Base, North West Frontier Province, said that so far CWS has been the largest donor of shelter and food packages in this area. Talking to the CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan team, he stressed the importance of each tent that is being provided.

"With each tent provided, a family is being saved," said Col. Zakeer. Temperatures will further drop in the next fifteen days, which will make survival next to impossible for those people living out in the open, said Col. Zakeer, as he appealed for more tents.

Church World Service is helping to provide shelter kits (family-sized tent, ground sheet, plastic sheet, two iron poles, and four blankets), as well as family food packages, to 20,000 of the worst-affected families.

Each shelter kit is valued at $172. Contributions to support these efforts may be sent to:
Church World Service
Southern Asia Earthquake--#6979
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515
Contributions may also be made online, or by calling 800.297.1516, ext. 222.

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Badly Needed Shelter Material on its Way to Pakistan; The Injured Cry Out for Medical Attention

Balakot, Pakistan--Church World Service reports that it has provided tents for 6,000 people, along with 10,500 blankets, to some of the most remote quake-affected areas of North West Frontier Province, and another airlift is planned with more tents, blankets, and additional equipment for producing clean water.

A Church World Service assessment team saw first-hand the enormous need for tents, especially in the mountain areas, where nights are cold and winter approaches.

"Even though we have very little food and the water is dirty from the mud after the earthquake, we do manage. What we need are tents. Without tents and blankets, we will freeze to death," said Fazi Akbar, from North West Frontier Province.

In the last few days, government officials have announced a sharp increase in the death toll; some non-governmental organizations in Islamabad believe that many more than 50,000 people have been killed. The number of casualties is thought to be at least 65,000, and two million people are homeless.

A week after the disaster, 20 percent of the affected areas still have received no aid at all. A large number of survivors live in areas that cannot be reached, and so far there have been too few helicopters to cover the enormous need for transportation and evacuation of injured people.

Each day people are dying from lack of medical assistance and medicines. Bodies are left in the ruins, under the masses of clay, or covered by dirty sheets on the pavement. And even if not visible, the stench of dead bodies gives a constant reminder of the magnitude of this disaster.

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A first-hand account. Arne Grieg Riisnæs of Norwegian Church Aid, a CWS partner, gives the following account:

When the first life-giving aid reached the remote villages of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, the scenes were heartbreaking.

The October 8 earthquake could hardly have hit a more vulnerable area than the North West Frontier Province and the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir. Many of the inhabitants live without roads and telephones--and are nearly totally isolated from the outside world. Nobody knew the dimensions of the devastation in this area or the number of people killed and wounded. Yet from 50 years experience in the area, Church World Service knew people would need a helicopter loaded with tents and food.

The sight of the area was horrendous. Nearly all buildings were either partly or completely ruined. Around the ruins of the homes of thousands of families, survivors had pieced together blankets and sheets, trying to protect themselves from the rain and the cold nights. As soon as the helicopter approached the ground, people came from all over and threw themselves at it.

"Please help us! Please, sir. We have lost everything. We will freeze to death," Fazi Akbar said. He is the headmaster of a small school completely destroyed in the earthquake. He was frantic that it took six days for aid to reach them after the quake.

"Still, getting some tents and blankets is a big gift. We have so many wounded, and last night we could see snow on the mountaintops. It is very cold, and it will only get colder. A lot of people are afraid they will freeze to death," Akbar said.

"Look at my eyes. I have not slept in five nights. My children are afraid there will be another earthquake, and they cry during the night," Gul Mond said. He thanks Allah that his small family survived, but he get tears in his eyes when he talks about all those who died. Everybody in this little village of Karg has been hit.

After stacking up hundreds of tents on the small landing spot by the river, the chopper took off. On the ground, people desperately threw themselves over the tents.

Ten minutes later, the helicopter landed in another village to hand out more tents. Lieutenant Kazaan had hardly opened the door before he was surrounded by hundreds of people. Seriously injured people were everywhere. Some were totally apathetic, while others cried quietly from provisional stretchers. More and more people kept coming, many of them with bloody and dirty bandages. After a few minutes, the lieutenant decided to evacuate as many wounded people as he could.

A little boy screamed as he was lifted into the helicopter. His leg had been severed, and the shaft of the bone was sticking out under congealed blood. He had been like that for six days. Young and old were fighting to get their family members on board the helicopter. It was complete chaos, and the fact that the inhabitants of this village speak Pashtu and therefore did not understand the military commands given in Urdu made the situation even worse.

A little girl fell off the blanket she was being carried in. The helicopter was very soon filled up, with room only for a small percentage of the wounded. Before the helicopter took off, the lieutenant shouted that more helicopters would arrive soon.

The helicopter headed for the army hospital in Abbottabad. A man sat holding his 14-month-old daughter in his arms. Her leg was broken, and one of her hands was partly crushed. Under her hair was a deep wound. Someone said that her sister and brother were killed in the earthquake. Their father had dug his three children out of the ruins with his bare hands. He clenched his daughter, all he has left.

Church World Service and Norwegian Church Aid and are members of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International.

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Church World Service Expands Relief Efforts in Spite of Weather

NEW YORK / ISLAMABAD - Church World Service (CWS) is expanding its relief efforts to reach survivors of the October 8 earthquake but is hampered by adverse weather and security conditions.

CWS truckloads of material continue to arrive in Mansehra on a daily basis, but weather conditions hampered relief efforts for a second day on Saturday. Staff carried out a needs assessment for emergency water and sanitation at Ayub Medical Hospital-Abbottabad on Saturday morning. Bad weather forced the team to abandon its assessment visits to Battagram and Balakot.

On October 13 (Thursday), CWS began to air drop shelter kits from army helicopters to some of the most affected and difficult to reach areas in Battagram, including 365 kits in Allai village. Using army helicopters has allowed CWS to carry out rapid distributions not only in inaccessible areas but has also prevented goods from being looted.

Because of the deteriorating security situation, CWS was not able to resume the air delivery of shelter kits the following morning (Friday, October 14), and heavy rains and hailstorms prevented the air delivery of shelter kits on Saturday.

The Pakistan meteorological office was forecasting more thunderstorms and hail in the coming days, which could further delay relief efforts and put survivors at greater risk.

CWS reported that the army has been extremely cooperative so far in the air-drop operation, and that currently the needs-assessment team is negotiating the delivery of more shelter kits to hard-to-reach areas. CWS said the army was very pleased to see the swift response of CWS and that the brigadier in charge there said that CWS has brought in the largest consignment of shelter kits so far. However, CWS also reported problems in obtaining enough shelter kits and trucks for transportation to meet the high demand.

To meet some of the demand, a flight with the first 40 to 45 metric tons of tents was expected to leave Oslo on Sunday, and the remainder of the 85-metric-ton shipment will arrive in Pakistan this week.

Over the weekend, Pakistan's government announced the latest death toll with a figure that had been revised sharply upward. In addition to rain and hail, snow has begun to fall in some parts of Kashmir. The arrival of harsher winter conditions makes reaching the earthquake survivors all the more crucial. With as many as 2.5 million people homeless, reports from the affected areas say that survivors' most critical needs are not food and clothing, but shelter and medical assistance, as many hospitals were destroyed in the earthquake as well.

Pakistan's disaster-response chief said that the authorities would not be able to provide shelter before the winter to many of the homeless survivors. Major General Farooq Javed told a news conference in Islamabad there were dire shortages of blankets and tents, but plans were underway to import two million blankets and 100,000 large tents.

Donate to South Asia Earthquake Response Contributions to support these efforts may be sent to:
Church World Service
Southern Asia Earthquake--#6979
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515

Contributions may also be made online, or by calling 800.297.1516, ext. 222.