From Indu, a message about how to donate and what is going on:
**please forward widely**
14 million people have now been affected by the flooding in Pakistan. Recent reports state that the carnage is worse than the 2004 Tsunami and the earthquake in Haiti.
The situation is getting worse by the hour as monsoon rains continue and water is washing down from the Himalaya Mountains. The international response to the flood is underwhelming, the UN has launched an appeal for $459m, to date, five countries, Britain, the US, Australia, Italy and Kuwait, have committed or pledged more than $5m in new funding. Currently, the amount of international aid that is committed does not scratch the surface of the need on the ground.
On the ground, there are ad hoc groups who are coming together to create relief camps for flood affected people. Please read a call below from one of these camps.
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From Lahore based activist and writer Kyla Pasha: we’re trying to gather a relief shipment for flood affected people from Kot Addu. A camp has been established by a local organization, Hirrak (www.hirrak.org) to house and feed 3-4,000 people. We’ll be sending what we can gather and buy from Lahore. They urgently need tents, foodstuffs and clothing. Please contact me (0300-819-0098) or Sarah Suhail (0321-846-4729) if you can help.
Friends abroad, this is a way to donate money which will make a direct impact without the overheads of an international ngo/organization. Please contact indu_vashist at hotmail dot com if you’d like to donate from abroad. There will be a continuing need for many months to come.
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For more information about the floods:
General Information: http://www.dawn.com/
Visuals of the scale of Pakistan floods: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10960887 ; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10950599
Statistics for Floods in Pakistan as of 10 August 2010: http://oneresponse.info/Countries/Pakistan/Pages/Floods-2010.aspx
Lack of International aid: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/10/pakistan-flood-international-aid; http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/2010811134327870815.html