Pakistan Earthquake 2005

Covering the earthquake, the damage and the relief work in Pakistan.

Archive for February, 2006

Cashmere for Kashmir to raise funds for quake victims

The Irfan Kathwari Foundation, a charitable group, is sponsoring a fund-raising event in New York next month to help the victims on the October earthquake in Kashmir.

Called ‘Cashmere for Kashmir,’ the two-day event on March 3 and 4 will include an auction featuring “unique pieces of cashmere clothing, accessories, and special items” at a private residence in Bedford, New York. The goal of the organisers is to raise more than a quarter of a million dollars. The proceeds will be given direct to local organisations in Kashmir, while a percentage will go to Refugees International, an advocacy group.  Read more... (258 words, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

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Monsoon a new threat to quake survivors

The approaching monsoon season poses new dangers of flooding for Hattian Bala village, officials said on Thursday.

The huge pile of earth and boul ders has blocked two streams, forming dams that could collapse in a rainy season. The government has determined that the dam collapse would inundate Hattian Bala and destroy a nearby bridge, Lt Col Zulfiqar Ali Janjua, an army engineer, said.  Read more... (264 words, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

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US to spend $200 million for education, health in quake zone

Ryan C Crocker, the United States ambassador to Pakistan, said on Wednesday that the US would spend $200 million over the next few years to supplement government’s efforts to revive educational and health facilities in quake-hit areas.

He was talking to the media at a ceremony for hand over of US medical equipment to the government.

The US Navy Marine Corps Combined Medical Response Team 3 (CMRT 3) held the ceremony before its return to Okinawa, Japan. The CMRT 3 provided medical relief to the quake affected people and also restored 12 local health facilities. CMRTs focused on medical outreach, vaccination and providing basic healthcare to thousands of villagers in inaccessible areas. The unit is returning to its base in Japan as the focus in quake-hit region is now shifting from relief work to reconstruction.  Read more... (297 words, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)

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Kingsley to appear in Pakistan earthquake documentary

Ben Kingsley will be featured in a documentary about the devastation caused by last year’s earthquake in Pakistan that flattened entire villages in the country’s portion of Kashmir and surrounding areas.

The documentary by director Chip Duncan is being made in partnership with Relief International, a Los Angeles-based aid organization. Pakistan’s government also supported the project.

Kingsley, who spent five days in the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir, told reporters in Islamabad on Wednesday that he would like to eliminate the phrase, “We must respect our differences,” from the “lazy vocabulary of political rhetoric.”  Read more... (267 words, 1 image, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)

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Earthquake survivor Siamese twins died

Conjoined female twins born to a 9 October earthquake survivor from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, died on Sunday, doctors say.

The twins were joined from chest to abdomen at the rib cage and shared a heart and liver.

Their mother, Shazia, gave birth to triplets on Saturday. A boy, born with the twins, is reported to be well.

Shazia and her husband had walked for hours from their quake-hit village to a hospital in Neelum valley on Friday.

The couple were then flown in an army helicopter to a hospital in the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, where the triplets were born on Saturday morning.  Read more... (278 words, 1 image, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)

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Photos from Quake Zone

Poster in Balakot: How to stop lung diseases

Still smiling

Source: Karachi Photo Blog

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Earthquake Photo Exhibition by Concern Worldwide

Concern Worldwide is a non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries

Last year, Concern Worldwide commissioned award-winning Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam to travel to Pakistan to visually capture the struggle faced by local people after the disaster. His pictures depict the sheer enormity of the catastrophe, and the amazing dignity and determination of people as they try to regain some semblance of normality.

Shahidul visited the provinces that bore the brunt of the destruction and loss of life, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and North West Frontier Province (NWFP).  Read more... (248 words, estimated 60 secs reading time)

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Urgent action urged on Pakistan landslide threat

Landslides present a substantial threat to survivors of last October’s catastrophic earthquake in Pakistan and urgent action is needed ahead of summer rains to prevent large-scale loss of life, experts say.

Professor David Petley of the International Landslide Center at Britain’s University of Durham and Dr Mark Bulmer of the Landslide Observatory at the University of Maryland in the United States visited the quake zone in northern Pakistan in January.

In a joint report made available on Monday, they said that while the response of Pakistani and international relief agencies to the October 8 quake had been remarkable, landslides posed a “substantial threat” to survivors.  Read more... (406 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

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