Archive for October, 2006

U.S. to train 30,000 teachers in Pakistani quake areas

The United States will train 30,000 teachers and build 50 schools in quake affected areas of Pakistan, the U.S ambassador said on Sunday, the first anniversary of an earthquake that killed 73,000 people.

Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker made the announcement during the inauguration by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz of the first school built by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Dadar village in North West Frontier Province.


Quake survivors stage anti-graft protest

Hundreds of survivors of last year’s earthquake in Pakistan staged an anti-graft protest in the capital on Saturday, accusing reconstruction officials of corruption.

Waving placards reading “Stop taking bribes”, “Spend the winter with us” and “Build our homes before snowfall”, the demonstrators marched from parliament to the office of the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Erra).


UN seeking $45m for winter operations

The United Nations is seeking $45 million for winter operations, including helicopters to help out the affected of the last year’s earthquake in Pakistan.

So far, about two-thirds of that sum has been made available, said a UN press release issued on Saturday, a day ahead of the anniversary of the devastating earthquake that shook the northern parts of the country in 2005.


One Year Later, Earthquake Survivors Still Lack Proper Shelter

A year after last October’s massive South Asian earthquake, aid agencies are warning that nearly two-million people are facing a second Himalayan winter without proper shelter. VOA‘s Benjamin Sand revisits one of the communities hit hardest by the October 8, 2005 quake and files this report on the disaster’s devastating legacy.


Pakistan winds up tent camp in earthquake zone

Authorities in Pakistani Kashmir on Tuesday began winding up one of the first informal tent camps established for survivors of last year’s deadly earthquake.

The closure of the camp set up in Jalalabad Park in Muzaffarabad, the devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir, came days ahead of the first anniversary of the earthquake.


New quakeproof building code for Pakistan soon

The National Engineering Services of Pakistan (NESPAK) is all set to prepare a new building code for Pakistan to protect buildings against future damages caused by high intensity earthquakes. It has already prepared a building code for Islamabad, AJK and some parts of the NWFP that were hit by last year’s earthquake.