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.
Technorati Tags: New York, Kashmir, CashmereMonsoon 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.
Technorati Tags: Hattian BalaUS 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.
Technorati Tags: Crocker, United States, CMRTKingsley 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.”
Technorati Tags: Ben Kingsley, Kashmir, Chip Duncan, Relief InternationalEarthquake 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.
Technorati Tags: earthquake, KashmirPhotos from Quake Zone
Poster in Balakot: How to stop lung diseases
Still smiling
Source: Karachi Photo Blog
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).
Technorati Tags: Concern Worldwide, Pakistan, KashmirUrgent 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.
Technorati Tags: Pakistan, Durham, Maryland, United StatesWakefield South Asia Earthquake Appeal
Wakefield Council is asking the community to help identify a specific area in Pakistan to benefit from the district’s fundraising efforts.
Council Leader Cllr Peter Box wants to focus on a Pakistan community to contribute to its reconstruction. There is also a possibility of developing long-term twinning links.
After the October 2005 earthquake, Wakefield Council donated £10,000 through the British Red Cross towards the relief effort.
Over the last few weeks the Council has worked closely with the South Asian community to coordinate local support.
Clothes, tents and blankets have been donated at nine Wakefield Collection Centres and four deliveries have been sent to Kashmir.
Technorati Tags: Pakistan, earthquake, Red CrossClear Path International Holds Pakistan Earthquake Relief Drive
The Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island and Clear Path International, an island-based humanitarian nonprofit, are seeking winter relief goods for Pakistan.
The two organizations are asking Kitsap County residents to donate their used but useable blankets, sleeping bags, tents, tarps, ground sheets, linens, medium- to heavy-weight clothes, coats, hats, scarves, gloves, shoes, boots, generic school supplies (pens, pencils, notebooks, etc.), hand tools, wool, fabric and sewing materials.
Donors can drop off all washed and functional items in the north parking lot at Sakai Intermediate School, 9394 Sportsman Club Rd. on Bainbridge Island, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25 and Sunday, Feb. 26. No junk, please.
Technorati Tags: Rotary