Earthquake: Eye-Witness Account by Ayesha H.
Member of a NY based Pakistani e-Forum, Ayesha H.'s accounts follow. Again the need for TENTS is #1 on the list.
I was on my way to Hunza with a German friend who is visiting Pakistan and were stopped by the quake.
I have spent the past few days working with the relief effort and went up to the Manshera area with money, supplies and a camera crew.
There are two things that stand out.
1. The incredible and immediate response of the people of Pakistan.
2. The complete lack of leadership. There is absolutely no coordination.
There is little damage in Abbottabad, but the hospitals are overflowing and filled with little children. The roads have been opened and there is little damage until you get to Ghari Habibullah, a girls school collapsed there and there were 250 kids inside. Many are still buried under the rubble. Until the 12th there were no army or government relief teams there to remove and bury the dead. I went further inland to some of the smaller villages here the story is worse. No houses left. Bodies still trapped in the rubble and the smell of death everywhere. There are hundreds of small hamlets, 20-40 houses each, in the mountains that have been destroyed. These are off the beaten track and no signs of all the relief that we see being trucked up. The only people I saw working in the area were the Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation. Ali Asghar Khan is very organized but severely hampered by lack of resources. He is going in to each area and doing a needs assessment of each village and then trying to meet those needs. The biggest shortage is TENTS. It is cold and millions have no shelter. It hailed and rained on the 11th which just compounded the misery.
I went to Balakot which as everyone knows is flattened. The roads are open but in some places only for single lane traffic and a 20 minute journey can take over 4 hours.
Balakot is a small town that is essentially a bazaar most people live up in the mountains. There are hundreds of trucks and tons relief goods there. However, they are not getting to the people in the mountains who are totally cut off. So stuff is strewn all over the place and in parts it looks like a second hand clothes market. This gives people the wrong perception that nothing is needed. Lots is needed and it is not going to those who need it. I am sure that all this stuff will find its way to the second hand clothing markets soon.
Batal, Battagram and places further afar are untouched by relief efforts and there is a serious anger mounting. Sungi has been doing the needs assessments and Ali Asghar Khans teams have gone to these areas today. They have taken food etc but do not have any more tents and blankets. I am trying to get them 1000 tents and need all the help I can get.
It is essential that the relief efforts be coordinated. I have seen looting of trucks by armed gangs, these are not victims but thugs. I have also seen trucks coming up with goods and then just throwing the stuff out to anyone standing on the side of the main highway. This is a terrible waste.
To give you a small example of the complete lack of coordination, there was a team of 15 doctors from Medicines du Monde (formally Medicines sans Frontiers) on the flight with a friend who had volunteered to work with me. My friend insisted they take his number in case there was a problem. They had a huge consignment of surgical equipment and medicines. No one was there to receive them and send them on their way. They called. We got them trucks and sent them to the Red Crescent who didn't know what to do with them. So we took them under our wing and they are in the Mansehra area working in the most remote villages. A happy ending.
I also saw something which really bothered me which was a minister out on tour, his outrider was not a motorcycle policeman or a jeep, it was an ambulance. He had commandeered it for the day. It was empty and there are people who need to get to hospital.
The aftershocks continue so people are really panicked. There are on average 5-6 serious tremors (between 5 and 6 on the Richter scale) a day. No one is willing to go indoors and are sleeping in the open. Water sources are being contaminated. Disease is a real threat.
I will go back up early next week. Have come down to get supplies, money and some surgical equipment.
PIA is flying stuff in free, so rather perhaps someone in the US can organize a consignment of tents. I undertake to make sure they get to the right people.
Ayesha T H.
I was on my way to Hunza with a German friend who is visiting Pakistan and were stopped by the quake.
I have spent the past few days working with the relief effort and went up to the Manshera area with money, supplies and a camera crew.
There are two things that stand out.
1. The incredible and immediate response of the people of Pakistan.
2. The complete lack of leadership. There is absolutely no coordination.
There is little damage in Abbottabad, but the hospitals are overflowing and filled with little children. The roads have been opened and there is little damage until you get to Ghari Habibullah, a girls school collapsed there and there were 250 kids inside. Many are still buried under the rubble. Until the 12th there were no army or government relief teams there to remove and bury the dead. I went further inland to some of the smaller villages here the story is worse. No houses left. Bodies still trapped in the rubble and the smell of death everywhere. There are hundreds of small hamlets, 20-40 houses each, in the mountains that have been destroyed. These are off the beaten track and no signs of all the relief that we see being trucked up. The only people I saw working in the area were the Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation. Ali Asghar Khan is very organized but severely hampered by lack of resources. He is going in to each area and doing a needs assessment of each village and then trying to meet those needs. The biggest shortage is TENTS. It is cold and millions have no shelter. It hailed and rained on the 11th which just compounded the misery.
I went to Balakot which as everyone knows is flattened. The roads are open but in some places only for single lane traffic and a 20 minute journey can take over 4 hours.
Balakot is a small town that is essentially a bazaar most people live up in the mountains. There are hundreds of trucks and tons relief goods there. However, they are not getting to the people in the mountains who are totally cut off. So stuff is strewn all over the place and in parts it looks like a second hand clothes market. This gives people the wrong perception that nothing is needed. Lots is needed and it is not going to those who need it. I am sure that all this stuff will find its way to the second hand clothing markets soon.
Batal, Battagram and places further afar are untouched by relief efforts and there is a serious anger mounting. Sungi has been doing the needs assessments and Ali Asghar Khans teams have gone to these areas today. They have taken food etc but do not have any more tents and blankets. I am trying to get them 1000 tents and need all the help I can get.
It is essential that the relief efforts be coordinated. I have seen looting of trucks by armed gangs, these are not victims but thugs. I have also seen trucks coming up with goods and then just throwing the stuff out to anyone standing on the side of the main highway. This is a terrible waste.
To give you a small example of the complete lack of coordination, there was a team of 15 doctors from Medicines du Monde (formally Medicines sans Frontiers) on the flight with a friend who had volunteered to work with me. My friend insisted they take his number in case there was a problem. They had a huge consignment of surgical equipment and medicines. No one was there to receive them and send them on their way. They called. We got them trucks and sent them to the Red Crescent who didn't know what to do with them. So we took them under our wing and they are in the Mansehra area working in the most remote villages. A happy ending.
I also saw something which really bothered me which was a minister out on tour, his outrider was not a motorcycle policeman or a jeep, it was an ambulance. He had commandeered it for the day. It was empty and there are people who need to get to hospital.
The aftershocks continue so people are really panicked. There are on average 5-6 serious tremors (between 5 and 6 on the Richter scale) a day. No one is willing to go indoors and are sleeping in the open. Water sources are being contaminated. Disease is a real threat.
I will go back up early next week. Have come down to get supplies, money and some surgical equipment.
PIA is flying stuff in free, so rather perhaps someone in the US can organize a consignment of tents. I undertake to make sure they get to the right people.
Ayesha T H.
posted by Aisha at
10/17/2005 10:15:00 PM
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