Ben Kingsley at Pakistani event for quake relief
Oscar-winning actor Sir Ben Kingsley, who recently returned from the earthquake-hit areas of northern Pakistan, which he visited on behalf of Relief International, is to attend a fund-raiser organised by a group of Pakistani professionals in California on 3 June.
Kingsley, was accompanied to Pakistan by filmmaker Chip Duncan for the shooting of a short documentary highlighting the work done by Relief International and emphasising the need for an international effort stretched over a much longer period. Kingsley became famous as Mahatma Gandhi in the Richard Attenborough film ‘Gandhi’ released in 1982. It won eight Oscars. The event has been organised by the Organisation of Pakistani Entrepreneurs and Professionals (OPEN), a voluntary, non-profit group “dedicated to the promotion of entrepreneurship and professional excellence”.
Technorati Tags: Ben Kingsley, Relief International, California100,000 quake survivors to live in camps till next winter: United Nations
At least 100,000 people left homeless after the devastating earthquake in northern Pakistan last year will have to live in camps till the next winter, Jan Vandemoortele, the United Nations resident coordinator, said on Monday.
Talking to reporters, Vandemoortele said there were several thousand homeless people who would have to live in the camps because their plots had been washed away or their native localities fell in a ‘red zone’ where the risks of further earthquakes are high.
The October 8, 2005 earthquake left 300,000 homeless, most of whom have started returning to their homes. “There will still be an estimated 100,000 people who will be living in the camps till the next winter,” he said.
Technorati Tags: earthquake, Pakistan, United NationsArtificial lakes may flood Kashmir areas
The artificial lakes that shaped as a result of the devastating earthquake that hit Pakistan last year may sink the nearby areas as water level in these lakes is dangerously rising.
The Karli Lake, some 60km from Muzaffarabad and the other near Hattian Bala are a threat to over 50,000 people living in nearby villages including Hafiz Bandi, Bani Hafiz, Sukh Naina, Chakli, Pano Bindi and Saleemia.
In the coming months the ice melting on the high altitude mountains may increase the water level as embankments of these lakes already brimming due to landslides, official sources here say.
Technorati Tags: earthquake, Pakistan, Karli Lake, MuzaffarabadNASA 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.