April 2006
NASA Derived Telemedicine Assists Pakistan Survivors
Kathleen Connell reports in her blog about NASA derived Telemedicine assistance for earthquake survivors in Pakistan.
The NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center RPC conducted a humanitarian medical mission to Pakistan, in order to work with doctors there and introduce telemedicine- a product of Apollo.
Telemedicine is one of the many ways taxpayer funded NASA technology can be redeployed to assist those in isolated regions.
Technorati Tags: NASA, Telemedicine, earthquake, Pakistan, ApolloRelief Camps Shut Before Villages Are Rebuilt
The Pakistan government has come under scathing criticism from relief organisations for its recent decision to close down relief camps for the survivors of the massive earthquake last year which killed close to 73,000 people.
Twenty five camps in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and five in Pakistan administered Kashmir were closed by Apr. 9. The inmates were left with no option but to return to devastated villages, still without basic facilities and housing.
The Oct. 8 earthquake, 7.6 on the Richter scale, collapsed mountains, altered the course of waterways and reduced entire villages to rubble. Some 400,000 houses were destroyed. Most roads, schools and hospitals in the affected areas either collapsed or are unusable.
Technorati Tags: Pakistan, earthquake, NWFP, KashmirPhotographic catharsis of earthquake affected children
A photography exhibition at the Khaas Art Gallery shows the earthquake tragedy through the eyes of children, depicting their life in the tent villages of NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) that gave them temporary shelter.
Organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with Communityspeak, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), the exhibition displays the outcome of two photography workshops for children conducted in the beginning of 2006 in the tent villages of Manshera, NWFP and Muzzaffarabad. The workshops aimed at encouraging children to photograph their lives in the internally displaced people (IDP) camps. The trainers distributed 35 mm cameras and gave basic photography training. Through the photographs, children have described their life in the tent villages.
Technorati Tags: Art Gallery, NWFP, Kashmir, UNICEF, NGO, Manshera, Muzzaffarabad, IDPPakistan quake zone still in ruins six months on
Earthquake survivors in Pakistan on Saturday were to mark six months since the disaster that killed more than 73,000 people, with reconstruction yet to start in most of the devastated area.
In the northwestern town of Balakot, that rebuilding work is never even going to happen. Authorities said last week they will relocate the ruined city and have banned further construction because it lies directly on a fault line. With around 90 percent of once-scenic Balakot’s houses, schools and shops reduced to rubble, residents living in tents are asking what they are meant to do for the next five or so years while the new town is built.
Technorati Tags: Earthquake, Pakistan, BalakotEarthquake-proof certificates to be imposed in Rawalpindi Cantt
The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board has made it compulsory to get an earthquake-proof certificate prior to construction of new houses, shops and plazas in Cantt.
All construction engineers approved by the Pakistan Engineering Council will be able to issue these certificates for a fee of Rs 5,000 for five Marlas of land Rs 10,000 for 10 Marlas of land. Meanwhile, the Station Commander of the Cantonment Board, Sajjad Azam, on the recommendation of Executive Officer, Rafique Sial and Secretary Mian Mudassar Khan has aborted the motion to issue certificates for smaller houses.
Technorati Tags: Rawalpindi, earthquake, CanttSix months after earthquake, real work is just beginning
Six months after the devastating October 8 earthquake, the worst is over but the real hard work is just beginning, Dan Toole, the head emergency programmes for the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.
Although people are starting to return to their villages to begin the task of rebuilding their shattered lives, tens of thousands are still in camps and time is running out, he told Reuters on a visit to London after visiting the stricken area.
“We may be six months on from the earthquake and through a mercifully mild winter, but there is still the monsoon to come and the next winter is only seven months away,” Toole said.
Technorati Tags: earthquake, UNICEF, Reuters, LondonGovernment to launch owner-driven construction in earthquake zone
The government will launch a $2.4 billion assessment and payment programme from April 7 to ensure construction of 600,000 houses in quake zone before next winter, Altaf Saleem, chairman of the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), said on Wednesday.
The government has already distributed the first installment of Rs 25,000 among 565,000 earthquake victims to start rebuilding their houses on owner-driven basis and teams has been constituted to assess and present recommendations for the second installment.
Explaining the rationale behind the owner-driven strategy, the chairman said that people have to be given incentives to start building shelter as early as possible. “The government will provide the money and they will provide speed,” he said.
Earthquake victims in Lahore leave for AJK and NWFP
Earthquake victims living in Lahore on the Punjab government’s invitation left for their native areas on Monday.
Saba Sadiq, adviser to the Punjab chief minister on social welfare, saw the 85 families off on the chief minister’s behalf at the Social Welfare Complex.
She also addressed the farewell ceremony, saying the Punjab had again played a role in helping people and had hosted the victims for four months. She said each family was also given three months of rations including flour, rice, oil, sugar, tea, milk powder, grains, pulses and spices. She also said every victim was given Rs 1,000.
Technorati Tags: Earthquake, Lahore, Punjab, social welfareBalakot to be relocated
Pakistan is to rebuild the city of Balakot in a completely new location after it was razed by last year’s Kashmir earthquake.
The city, home to 300,000 people before the quake, will be rebuilt in a safer location to modern design standards.
Pakistan also announced that it will shift focus from relief efforts to begin the rebuilding of devastated towns and villages on 7 April.
More than 73,000 people died and three million lost homes in the earthquake.
Balakot is currently located on a major geological fault line about 200km (120 miles) north of the country’s capital, Islamabad.
Technorati Tags: Balakot, Kashmir, IslamabadAmir Khan to visit earthquake survivor camp
British boxer Amir Khan will try to play his part in supporting this week the millions of survivors of last year’s devastating earthquake that struck several parts of Pakistan when he visits a camp of displaced people on the Pakistani side of Kashmir.
The 2004 Olympic silver medallist will visit residents of a camp near the city of Muzaffarabad on 6th April, the same place he visited on an earlier trip last December.
“These people have lived through a massive earthquake and survived a winter of snow and rain camped in tents next to the Himalayas, said the Bolton-based boxer on Sunday. “We all need to work together to give them as much support, care and time as they need to rebuild their homes and their lives.”
Technorati Tags: Amir Khan, earthquake, Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, Bolton