Your requests here
Please post public requests for:
information on the situation
or
any help you need
in the comments section of this post.
We don't guarantee being able to answer everything ourselves, or to offer direct help, but another reader might have information for you.
information on the situation
or
any help you need
in the comments section of this post.
We don't guarantee being able to answer everything ourselves, or to offer direct help, but another reader might have information for you.
zigzackly at 6:03 am |
I am living in Pakistan and want to know who I can contact to volunteer assisting the needy in the affected regions. I hope you know
My mother who is British is in Shimla and we have not heard from her since Friday. Please can someone tell me if Shimla has been badly affected by the quake as im very worried. Thanks Emma
Any idea where Kashmir Surgical Hospital is?
The Prime Minister's National Relief Fund(PMNRF), provides immediate relief to people in distress. The Fund depends entirely on voluntary donations received from the public.
Checks/Money Orders should be drawn in favor of "Prime Minister's National Relief Fund" can be sent to any one of the following addresses:
Prime Minister's Office,
New Delhi 110011.
INDIA
Prime Minister's National Relief Fund
Embassy of India
Attn: Head of Chancery
2107 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Website- http://pmindia.nic.in/relief.htm
Re:Emma Shimla - the capital of Himachal Pradesh and a popular hill station in North India, not badly affected.
Feel free to email me pradeepsomani@hotmail.com
Hospital details address and phone numbers -
Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, Tel. 400348. SMHS Hospital, Karan Nagar, Tel. No.451312,452013 Children's Hospital, Hospital Road, Tel. No. 451317 Lal Ded Hospital, Srinagar, Tele No.477527/452017 Jhelum Valley Medical College ,Srinagar Tele.No.490137 Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hospital, Rainawari Tele.No.452025. Bone & Joints Hospital, Barzulla Srinagar Tele.No. 430155.
I am looking for information about staff and students at Kohat University of Science and Technology, in Kohat City, NWFP.
The city is located in the SW quadrant of the main affected area. If the city was spared the worst, then people there may be relatively well situated to provide help in adjacent areas that are more affected - but the helpers will need help also!
I have set up a page online to report what I learn about Kohat, which has not been mentioned by international media (see (www.researchco-op.net/kohat.html) .
Syed Khalid Ahmed
I live in the US and hundreds of people are trying to send cash donations but running into issues.
Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC has nothing setup. I called earlier today and some receptionist had no idea if the Consulate was even collecting money so he put me to someone's voicemail.
Edhi's office in NY is only taking personal checks or money order. So, people who do not live in NYC area have to mail the checks in which can take few days to get there and get cashed, so basically we are talking about a week's time.
What is amazing is that even the President's website (www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk) has no link for sending donations through credit card.
If someone in Pakistan can bring this issue to the Govt. of Pakistan, that would be a favor for all of us Pakistanis living abroad.
Association for the Development of Pakistan (ADP) is collecting money online at www.DevelopPakistan.org for Edhi Foundation and the President's Earthquake Relief Fund. Edhi Foundation and the President's Earthquake Relief Fund are uniquely qualified to mount the kind of large-scale response that is needed. There is also information on how to contribute to other NGOs engaged in relief efforts.
ADP is a 501(c) non-profit and all donations are deductible for US tax purposes. Please encourage others to give as well.
Hi,
can anyone give further info on PIA saying that they will carry relief cargo free of charge to pakistan..
I want to send medicines and kaffan, but when I phone PIA in london, they said go to islamic relief. When I went to Islamic Relief, they said, we prefer money.. I have already made monetary donations, and I wish to send actual supplies now..
please, anyone have contacts with PIA in UK, can they clarify what the ir statement / policy is with regard to taking relief cargo free of charge..
thanks,
Most of the int'l aid has been unsuccessful because the govt. won't give them appropriate information. Now that so many are pouring in, security clearance has become an issue and is consuming the airport resources.
Supplies are not reaching where they need to and unfortunately the army is still unable to behave in an efficient and organized manner.
We are actively providing aid to localities ourself and are working privately. We have so far provided about 2 crore rupees worth of supplies along with 25 lakh rupees in cash donations alone. We are making long term plans for rebuilding of villages and maintaining solid informative databases by making trips ourselves.
You can find more information at zohare.blogspot.com
http://lahore.metblogs.com/archives/2005/10/medical_supplie.phtml
My Fiance who lives in the Pakistani Swat/Mingaora area and I last spoke to him 8 hours before the earthquake. Please can anyone tell me if the Mingaora area has been damaged badly? Thanks so much! Shafia
Our's is a gujarat based NGO by the name of Gujarat Sarvajanik Welfare Trust based in ahmedabad .We want to work in badly affected areas ,So please provide us the list of worst affected areas as well as the relief material which they are in need of.
OUR CONTACT NO.
RIZWAN SAIYAD
098255 65780
rizwan.saiyad@gmail.com
please contact us urgently.
gswt2003@yahoo.com
KIDNAPPING ALERT
My sister, a journalist from Lahore was in Abbotabad yesterday. She was approached by a few volunteers who begged her to alert all NGOs and the Govt that young girls are being kidnapped from Balakot and other earthquake hit areas. The need is that NGOs and aid groups working in the area should alert the parents and girls not to accompany unknown persons alone who lure them with promises. The children and especially girls need to be warned. My sister is alerting the media. Meanwhile if anyone in the area reads this, pl start this awareness campaign as soon as possible.
Thanks.
Can we get more info on the governments handling and co-ordination efforts on the ground.. do they have a plan ? is it being executed ? or is everyone doing their own thing ?
Hi, I have found some links to satellite imagery of the area affected : http://mcode.blogspot.com/
ta
-machinecode
"Hassun Shareef"
> 10/18/2005 01:58 PM
>
> Hello All,
>
> I wanted to share my trip to Muzaffarabad with you
> all. The purpose is
> not to brag that I have been there and done that.
> The one and only
> purpose behind sharing my story is that you all get
> to know, from
> someone like you, what is happening at this very
> moment while we sit in
> our air-conditioned offices thinking how the time
> will pass till iftar,
> what we will have for iftar and what we will do
> afterwards.
>
> I, as part of a group of 12 people went to Islamabad
> on Friday morning
> to volunteer in the relief efforts to help the
> earthquake victims. We
> all had a few concerns before we left for the trip.
> We were asking
> ourselves whether we would be of any help, how
> possibly we could be of
> any help, how would we help, where would we help,
> which NGO should we
> volunteer to, so on and so forth. In the end we just
> decided to go there
> and find out for ourselves. We ended up at the HQ of
> Sungi, which we had
> heard was the most organized of all the NGOs and
> which was doing the
> best work. When we got to their office it was total
> chaos, no one was in
> charge and there was total utter lack of
> communication. We went and
> offered our services wherever needed, one person
> told us to go to
> Mansehra, the other told us that there was no need
> in Mansehra and that
> we should go to Balakot and yet another person came
> and told us that
> there were enough volunteers in Balakot and that we
> should go to
> Rawalakot. So in the end we had to talk to a dozen
> people to assess the
> situation and then decide on our own where we should
> go t! o help. What
> we did was send an advance team to Abbotabad on
> Friday evening while we
> waited for the rest of the team to join us in
> Islamabad. When a part of
> our team reached Abbotabad we were told that a lot
> of help was needed in
> Muzaffarabad so we decided that that was where we
> should go.
>
> >From Islamabad to Abbotabad and from there to
> Muzaffarabad took us
> approximately 7 hours because we had to take a
> longer, safer route. Till
> Abbotabad the effects of the earthquake were not
> visible as such. In
> abbotabad we visited the Ayub Medical College
> complex which was our
> first glimpse of the tragedy unfolding even as I
> write this email. There
> was blood everywhere, screams coming from children
> who were being
> amputated, wounded sitting on the footpaths with
> nowhere to go. This was
> nothing compared to what we were about to se! e in
> Muzaffarabad. We
> started seeing the real destruction and chaos that
> the earthquake has
> caused. Driving through villages that we had never
> heard of, Garhi
> Habibullah and Balakot etc., we could not see a
> single structure
> standing. All we could see were men, women and
> children waiting by the
> roadsides for help which was not coming fast enough.
> We did not see any
> relief efforts, any NGO camps, any government
> workers, any army workers
> till we reached the outskirts of Muzaffarabad. We
> had been told that we
> would need to wear surgical masks because the stench
> of death would be
> bad. Didn't believe them then but it turned out to
> be true. Shattered
> houses, the stench of death and the homeless
> everywhere is what greeted
> us in the capital of Azad Kashmir.
>
> We drove around asking everyone where we should go
> to help out
> especially keeping in mind that we had two doctors
> with us and lots and
> lots of medicine. Finally we arrived at Neelum
> ground, which was being
> used as a helipad base by the army to carry out the
> relief efforts. It
> was a terrifying scene. There were wounded
> everywhere, helicopters
> landing and taking off every few minutes and people
> running all over the
> place. There were also people just sitting around
> watching the
> helicopters and doing nothing more. We went into the
> TCF camp and asked
> the in charge, Adnan, if any help was needed. He
> grabbed all of us and
> gave us a briefing right there on the spot, telling
> us what help was
> needed and how we could fit in. He told us that
> volunteers were needed
> by the hundreds and they were needed for at least 7
> to 10 days. This
> freaked most of us out because we had just planned
> to help out for a
> couple of days and then get back to our normal
> lives. After a lot of
> discussion it was decided that we would help out the
> best we could and
> some of us! would stay while the rest went back. We
> started off by some
> of us putting up a medical tent, the others helping
> out in the operating
> theater, while others managed the patients in the
> Pre Op and Post Op.
> Patients were streaming in, not just into our camp
> but in every camp
> setup in Muzaffarabad. We saw close up, limbs being
> amputated, kids in
> shock, grown men and women crying for shelter and
> food. It was just
> really, really terrible. We helped out at the camp
> for two days the best
> we could and now some of us are back in Karachi to
> organize the relief
> that we think is most needed while some of us stayed
> back to help out
> for a few days more.
>
> In my opinion and from what I saw, I have come to
> the following
> conclusions.
>
> 1. The government is doing almost nothing to
> help in the relief
> effort. I guess with the busy meeting schedules that
> the entire
> government has these days its hard for them to do
> much else. I did not
> see a single cent out of the billions of dollars,
> from Abbotabad to
> Muzaffarabad, that the government has received in
> PRIVATE donations
> being used in the relief effort. There was one
> government official who
> visited the relief camps on Sunday morning and
> distributing 1000 rupee
> notes at HIS OWN discretion and at the most he must
> have distributed a
> 100,000 Rupees. There were helicopters being used to
> ferry government
> officials (or atleast people with enough contacts)
> to Islamabad (of
> course that may be deemed as relief effort by the
> government). People
> told us that almost the entire government of Azad
> Kashmir had left the
> mom! ent it was possible for them to get out of
> Muzaffarabad. People
> told us that the Prime Minister of AJK came down
> from Islamabad on
> Sunday morning to inspect his residence and then
> went back to the safety
> of our Capital city. On Monday morning, the
> heli-base was
> extraordinarily more organized, cleaner, crisper and
> brimming with
> generals (and their butlers, chauffeurs, body guards
> and so on and so
> forth). We asked around and were told that Maharaja
> Shaukat Aziz was
> flying up from his palatial Prime Ministers
> Secretariat to hold a victim
> in his arms and get photographs taken to gather more
> and more aid for
> God knows what!
> 2. The Army. Our rulers. Our Benefactors. Our
> lords. I would not
> say that the army is doing nothing but I will say
> that it is doing not
> even 30% of what they could be doing. From what I
> could see they were
> far too busy orchestrating a media campaign (much
> like Wag the Dog) to
> portray an image of the earthquake most suitable to
> them. Foreigners,
> local press, and people with influence were allowed
> to enter the grounds
> but people crying and begging outside for shelter
> and food were stopped
> by MPs at the gates. They were told that the
> generals down to the majors
> were far too busy to entertain them. This scene was
> made even crueler by
> the fact that the victims could see areas of the
> grounds where heaps of
> relief goods (including tents and warm clothes) were
> clearly visible to
> them. I stopped a colonel whom I had gotten to know
> in the previous 24
> hours and asked him why these people were not being
> helped. His reply
> was and I quote 'If we start giving tents and other
> relief to these
> people we would not have any left for the remote
> areas where they were
> needed the most. We have been strictly ordered from
> the top not to give
> out anything!' On one hand you hear that and then on
> television you
> hear ! them they say that they can't reach the
> remote areas due to bad
> weather, etc. So who gets the relief goods then? It
> was so sad to see
> that the army was not willing to help the people who
> had walked injured
> for days to get to help and at the same time it is
> (supposedly) not able
> to help the people that need it the most in remote
> areas. The relief
> goods that our flowing into the effected areas are
> being held hostage
> just like our country also is by these heartless
> dictators. The army is
> busy facilitating and controlling the foreign press
> as well as the
> foreign rescue and relief teams. The army is letting
> them see and work
> in areas that the army wants them to be in and no
> other. We saw
> approximately 8-10 helicopters working over the
> period of two days.
> Those helicopters were predominantly being used to
> ferry journalists and
> television crews back and forth so that the world
> could see what the
> army wanted them to see and the government could get
> the aid that it
> needs to feed their i! nsatiable appetites. I am not
> saying that those
> helicopters were not bringing in victims, they were.
> Maybe 4 sorties out
> of 10 were for this purpose but not more.
> 3. The NGOs are doing the best that they can.
> Private NGOs like
> Sungi, TCF, etc. are doing a lot but most of them
> have no organization
> whatsoever (TCF being an exception from what I have
> seen). Political
> parties are doing all they can to ensure that they
> have as many sympathy
> votes as they can. Camps of parties like MQM and PPP
> could be seen all
> over the place but they were there mostly for
> political reasons and not
> for aid reasons. One could tell that was their main
> purpose by looking
> at the political slogans all over the place. The
> camps were full of
> workers who should have been out in the fields and
> were bereft of relief
> goods that had been replaced by posters and
> loudspeak! ers. The members
> of national assembly, provincial assemblies,
> politicians as well as some
> relief organizations are concentrating on areas that
> are dear to them
> for ulterior motives of course. Sadly, the worst hit
> areas are not
> important to anyone because they are of no
> consequence to anyone. Who
> cares about villages that are so remote that one has
> to walk for two
> days under normal circumstances? Nobody!
>
> In my opinion the following is needed on a war
> footing.
>
> 1. We need to get shelter, warm clothes,
> blankets, food! and most
> of all medical assistance to the remotest parts of
> Pakistan before it
> becomes too late. We need to improvise, come up with
> ideas that will
> help us provide shelter to people who cannot be
> reached by roads. The
> government and the army informs us every hour that
> they have x number of
> tents available for immediate relief. What they fail
> to mention is that
> these tents, when packed, are approximately 7 feet
> long and weigh at
> least 40 pounds making them impossible to be
> transported to the remote
> areas. We need tents that are of the lightest
> material, weather proof,
> can fit in a big shopping bag so that they can be
> dropped in the
> remotest areas where people are dying by the minute.
> I met people whose
> villages were between 5 and 15 kilometers from
> Muzaffarabad who had
> received any help of any sort. Their children were
> dying of hunger and
> the cold. Their homes had been destroyed and now
> they were being turned
> back from Muza! ffarabad with no help, just empty
> promises. One man told
> us that the population of his village which was
> around 15,000 had been
> reduced to a couple of thousand and those too were
> dying because of no
> relief, no shelter and no food. One man came in
> carrying his 4 year old
> daughter with a broken arm. They had walked for two
> days to get to the
> clinic. They had not eaten or drank anything in that
> time and the
> daughter was in total shock not being able to utter
> a single word. One
> man was brought in and his leg was amputated right
> in front of us. He
> had lost his wife and 4 kids and now he had lost his
> leg. Don't you
> think he must have been asking himself why he had
> been left alive?
> 2. Medical Specialists. Now there is hardly
> any use for general
> physicians because the victims are ! not suffering
> from cough and cold.
> Now is the most urgent need for orthopedic surgeons
> so that limbs can be
> amputated before the owners of those limbs die of
> gangrene.
> Neurosurgeons are needed so that brain injuries
> don't turn into brain
> deaths. Pediatricians and Psychiatrists are needed
> so that the children
> can be given some hope for the future. We need
> Mobile Clinics so that
> victims who are too injured to travel down to the
> big cities can be
> helped. We need experienced doctors who would be
> willing to go to the
> remotest areas, if they are not willing to volunteer
> then we should hire
> them and take them there at any cost! People, if we
> don't help the
> people who are dying right now, there won't be any
> NEED for
> RECONSTRUCTION!
> 3. We need money. So that thes! e people have
> funds to survive
> the cold. These people have the will to live and the
> will to do what
> they must to survive but they don't have the means.
> They are traveling
> for days on foot to get to major cities and help
> themselves but they
> don't have the money to buy food, shelter, etc. and
> take these things
> back to their villages. We gave a tent to an elderly
> man who was atleast
> 70 years old. This tent was the kind that weighs 40+
> pounds. This aged
> man heaved the tent on his back and started walking
> to his village. The
> journey was supposed to take him two days on foot.
> It makes me happy to
> think that at least his family must have a roof over
> their heads as I
> write this email.
> 4. We need volunteers. Doesn't matter what
> your skills are.
> Doesn't matter how busy you are. Does! n't matter
> how spoilt you are.
> Those people need you! Even if you can take out one
> weekend of your life
> then please go up there. Treat it as a road trip, a
> camping trip or
> whatever else that you fancy but go there. Those
> people need to see that
> we care. Even if you go there and just sit with a
> few families and talk
> to them for a couple of hours. That will at least
> show them that we are
> there for them. If you can't afford or can't carry
> too much luggage,
> just take one sweater and give it to just one of the
> victims and you
> will have done some good. If you there is more
> humanity and concern
> inside you then go to one of the NGOs and help them
> in one of their
> camps. Go to the TCF office here in Karachi, they
> need volunteers by the
> hundred! Forget winter vacations in London and
> Paris. Our country needs
> us like it has never needed us before. It is a war
> zone out there and if
> we don't do something right now, it will haunt us
> some day in the
> future.
> 5. We need transportation. The government
> cries and moans that
> they don't have enough helicopters. I bet if they
> give an ad in every
> major newspaper in the world that they are willing
> to hire any and all
> helicopters available anywhere in the world, there
> will be a hundred
> helicopters landing at Islamabad airport tomorrow!
> Everything is for
> hire and so are helicopters and pilots. If the
> government is not willing
> to help it's people then we should do whatever we
> have to do to do
> things on our own. I know of a group of people in
> Dubai who had rented a
> helicopter, loaded it with relief goods and sent it
> to the remote areas
> and made drops there themselves! Why can't others do
> it? If a new years
> charity ball can raise millions of rupees because we
> want to have some
> fun, I am sure we can raise a lot more if we ! want
> to sincerely help.
>
> My email has become too long. I apologize for taking
> so much of your
> time but I hope that I have made things a bit
> clearer for you all. Those
> people need us right now, this very minute otherwise
> it will be too
> late. There are people dying every minute of every
> hour of every day!
> Please help!
>
> We didn't do much while we were there except for
> properly organizing the
> TCF camp there and helping out with a few patients
> etc. When we were
> leaving the people there were insisting us to stay
> back. We asked them
> what good will us staying back do when we are not
> specialized doctors,
> when we ! don't have the RIGHT relief goods to
> distribute and when we
> are not brave enough to climb up the mountains to
> help the really needy.
> They said that's true but at least you brought some
> life back into this
> place, helped a few people and made others smile. If
> you think you
> cannot do much else then please at least go there
> and spread a few
> smiles.
>
> I plan to go there again in the next week to ten
> days. This time I will
> be better organized and better prepared. You all are
> most welcome to
> join me or help me as best as you guys can.
I am living in Pakistan, and would like to know the names of all the NGO's which are currently working in the earthquake stricken areas. Can anyone help?
I wanted to share information about CGI sheets. Its better than tents and people can move to permanent homes rather than tent. Here are few facts about CGI Sheets. I got this information from City sadder road Rawalpindi after spent a day to buy 4 ton of CGI sheets.
Best bargain is buy sheet by weight and not by dimension.
Sheet should not be more than 10 feet length unless you have requirement.
Maximum length is 16 feet. but expert believe 10 feet will have more strength.
Width is 3.5 feet and after carogation its 3 feet.
27 gauge sheet is suitable and more you come down better it is; mean 26 is better than 27.
28 gauge and above are very thin sheet; expert in the sheet market says they don't last too long and less strength to hold.
Also be very cautious about when they weight ready sheet, they put extra weight which you can't detect; use digital weighing machine and check machine with standard weight before putting sheets.
Never give them full money until they load into your truck and then clear remaing balance.
I bought four ton with family fund to denote to Rawalakot. Price I paid was Rs 59.50/Kilo ($1US) (very good deal). Trader in the market are asking 67 to 70 per kilo. Please call me if you have any questions at 0300 856 8418
Some facts about weights:
1 Ton = 1000 kilo grams.
4 Ton = 4000 kilo grams.
4000= 4000 * 59.50 = RS238,000
Price for 1 Ton= Rs 59500 or $1000 USD
Price for 4 Ton = Rs 238,000 or $4000 dollars
Imran Hashmi
Sms +92300856-8418
Canada 1-416 628 9101
www.hashmi.ca
Just clk n Donate...:)
Visit the page below and click the appropriate link,
you will have just raised 10p / 17c for the Pakistan
Earthquake Appeal
No payment required from u!
link http://simplyislam.com/clickforcharity.asp
Zunera
I live in USA and i am going to pakistan today. I want to give help in Balakot area personally.
i'd appreciate if anyone can guide me.
On March 5th 2006 upwards of seven new and independent bands, musicians and artists will be coming together to take a stand and to raise funds on behalf of Learning For Life. The gig will take place at East London’s famous Spitz venue and with the bands waiving any fee, all proceeds will go to Learning For Life’s Reconstruction and Repair project. The project aims to raise enough funds to rebuild the 24 schools lost in the recent South Asia Earthquake and to build 16 more by the end of 2006.
Name: The Band’Stand: A Learning for Life Fundraiser
Charity: Learning For Life
Promoter: The ArtMusicPolitic Co-op / Protest Recordings
Bands: The Bellagios, Youth of Britain, Shuffle, Daddy Long Legs, King Blues, Greyhound Green, Tactician
Venue: The Spitz, 109 Commercial Street, Old Spitalfields Market, London E1.
Doors: 4pm - midnight
Fee: £6