Letter from German Social Worker who went to the earthquake site with Germen Red cross
Dear Asif,
Let me begin by apologizing for this delayed reply as I was busy and have just returned here back in Germany from Pakistan.
My experience of working with the people and Government of Pakistan is so far good. I am particularly impressed with the individuals and organizations in Pakistan. They have demonstrated a great sense of maturity, unification and solidarity.
Just to give you one example, the Vice Chancellor, Faculty and Students of Hamdard University in Karachi travelled immediately to Islamabad, purchased food and other essential items and travelled up north to deliver. They were also accompanied by the medical team from Hamdard Hospital and they immediately established free medical camps and treated over 900 injured people within the first week.
Similarly, the Government Doctors at PIMS Hospital Islamabad and many other doctors in the region worked round the clock to save lives.
As far as Germany is concerned, the initial response was good in terms of cash, goods, helicopters, expertise and so on. The German Foreign Minister has already written a letter to FM Kasuri and has requested to inform Germany ASAP as to what more could be done. Furthermore, Germany has setup Relief Fund for Pakistan and now there are adds in the local media requesting people to donate so that more money could be send to Pakistan to help the victims.
After initial support in terms of cash and medicine, I am now focusing on sending volunteers from Germany. This includes experienced Nurses, Doctors, and Logistic Experts. Although we keep on hearing from Official Channels that Human Resources are enough in Pakistan to handle this disaster, I do keep on receiving information that there are still not enough professionals to handle the situation.
As to your question about the areas in which one should provide further support, I would suggest tents and food. Both of the items in large quantities.
Sooner or later we need to discuss: What next? In other words, the Government should begin planning (and planning well) the reconstruction and rehabilitation process. The situation is so bad on the ground that it cannot simply be allowed to continue like this any more. We need a short term and long term plan. We agree that the Government should invest sufficient amount of time for planning and implementing the permanent solutions, but at the same time a well-thought and real-life based short term action plan should be developed and implemented ASAP.
The gigantic task cannot be left to associations and individuals any more. The Government must act and act now with exemplary amount of transparency. As this earthquake was unprecedented in Pakistan, similarly the transparency should be unprecedented in the history of Pakistan.
Warm regards from Germany
Letter from Ayesha Hasan who is working tirelessly in Pakistan for the Earthquake victims
Children- largest number of dead-Thousands of bodies still lie under rubble
Phase 2 has started but:
There are regions that have not even been accessed yet i.e. relief no aid
MUST coordinate with several LOCAL relief organizations for maximum impact and outreach- access to as much quake affected region as possible
Base camps needed in main city squares like Bala Kot, Bagh, Rawala Kot- mobilize local communities in the surrounding mountains- only way relief can reach the needy and all the victims be provided for Int'l Media coverage is dropping alarmingly
There is
devastation, desolation and misery in the remote and inaccessible
areas of
Both these mountainous regions are a maze of extremely narrow valleys and ravines. The earthquake and resultant landslides have broken, blocked with large stones or completely destroyed most roads/passages. The roads are narrow as it is and only one vehicle can pass at a time. Access to the seriously quake ravaged areas is limited to by foot only and that takes hours.
Horrifying and heart wrenching eye-witness accounts are pouring in; villages have disappeared, entire communities have perished, nothing left but debris and rotting corpses - the stench emanating from them has pervaded the atmosphere – thousands unaccounted for especially children.
The districts of Bagh and Balakot and other surrounding areas have been completely leveled by the quake. Voices, mostly children, could be heard crying out for help from the underneath the rubble but they could not be dug out with just bare hands alone-now there is just deathly silence.
Survivors have no food, water or medicines, they’re scrounging around for whatever they can lay their hand on; they will die from injuries, hunger or suicide.
One survivor in Bagh asked if the media can reach then why can’t aid? He said that helicopters have been flying right over them but no aid. Survivors from remote villages high up in the surrounding mountains carry the injured down the steep, rocky mountainside all the way to Bagh in the hopes of finding relief but there is nothing except misery and the smell of death.
Rescue teams that have managed to reach these isolated towns are running low on supplies which cannot be replenished immediately and that is leading to further frustration, anger and chaos. Rain, hail and now snow isn’t helping the relief efforts.
Under every piece of rubble is a dead human being –mostly children.
The ONLY way to get humanitarian and medical aid to these people is to airdrop through helicopters. There are only 8 helicopters available.
The aim is to provide aid to the hardest hit and least accessible areas. The most needed relief items are: Tents, Blankets, First Aid kits, Medicines, Warm clothing.
Short term goal was to provide relief / Long term goal is help re-build.
From Shandana Khan- CEO of RSPN
"Mountainous region -balakot, battagram, mansehra and parts of AJK are VERY narrow valleys. Allai, in upper Battagram has received NOTHING. We are going there with a CARE team to take tents and other supplies. Clearly there is not enough heavy equipment with the army to clear these roads - they are trying very hard through air drops i.e. C130s and helis, but the scale of the devastation is tremendous. .
Regions will start getting blocked, it has already started snowing in upper Bagh, and we don't have enough time. If we get tents in, we can airlift with the army and airforce - no problem. But people need to send double-ply, winterized tents. Apart from this, see if you can get in touch with FONGAS or someone who can give us small stoves cum heaters. There is no way that canvas single ply tents will be good enough.
Some remote areas are not known to anyone except those present on the ground. we have spent two days trying to do a heli drop through the air force because they wanted coordinates for villages which we did not have. They don't know villages, valleys, nothing. We are all trying, what can i say."
