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| November 30, 2005 | Wednesday | Shawwal 27, 1426 |
President asks private sector to rebuild education edifice in quake-hit zones ISLAMABAD, Nov 30 (APP): President General Pervez Musharraf Wednesday underlined a firm commitment to building an elaborate education edifice in the quake-shattered areas and urged the private sector to join in the effort by adopting schools at the grassroots level. He was addressing an international conference on the future of schools and education, organized by the Beacon House group.Musharraf informed the conference that a comprehensive database, containing information about the requirement of educational institutions down to the village level in the quake-affected areas of NWFP and Azad Kashmir would shortly be put on the Internet. Dilating on the need-based strategy, he said, it was aimed at developing human resource on modern lines and under it at least one primary school will be built in each of the 4000 affected villages, a middle school for every four villages, a high school for every eight villages and three to four colleges in each of the 25 tehsils. The AJK University destroyed in the calamity would also be rebuilt on modern lines, he added.(Posted @ 16:20 PST)
Moderate intensity earthquake jolts Chitral PESHAWAR, Nov 30, (APP): An earthquake of moderate intensity measuring 5.0 on the international Richter scale jolted Chitral on Wednesday. According to the preliminary analysis of Meteorological Station Peshawar, the earthquake originated at 6:57 hours and its epicentre was about 300 kilometres north of Peshawar in Hindukush Ranges. There were no immediate reports of casualties and damages.(Posted @ 16:10 PST)
Pakistani villagers wait for tents as freeze starts BHERI, Pakistan, Nov 30 (Reuters) With winter starting to set in, some survivors of Pakistan's earthquake are without shelter, sufficient food or warm clothing nearly eight weeks after the disaster struck, aid officials said on Wednesday.The focus of the relief effort was shifting towards food, even though shelters were still needed, said Jean-Philipe Bourgeois, a field coordinator for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). "It's a combined problem. Not only food, not only shelter, but both." An official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said she had taken a relief flight on Tuesday to some high-altitude areas. "This was a very poor area where little aid has reached so far," ICRC spokeswoman Jessica Barry said. "Women and children were walking around barefoot (in freezing temperatures)."(Posted @ 16:00 PST)
Quake survivors plead for help in Occupied Kashmir DRANGYARI, Nov 30 (Reuters) Sarwar Jan and her eight shivering children collect a handful of twigs to light a fire in their little tin shed as it snows heavily outside. "I fear they will catch pneumonia going out in such weather," said 45-year-old Jan. Nearly 600 people in Occupied Kashmir live in temporary tin sheds and tents under a thick layer of snow and freezing temperatures in Drangyari, a small valley ringed by lofty snow-covered mountains and pine forests. "Life has become extremely difficult particularly for children. Allah is angry with us. Allah only can save us," said Mohammad Showkat Khan, the chief priest of the village, looking towards the sky as the snow falls. Winters are always harsh in this part of the Himalayan region. Snowstorms and avalanches killed 300 in Occupied Kashmir last season and meteorologists predict another tough winter this year. "In the next few days we will be buried under snow. Nobody is coming to help us. Even God is angry with us. Please help us," pleaded 82-year-old Khatoon.(Posted @ 15:55 PST)
Winter triples illnesses in Pakistan's quake zone MUZAFFARABAD, Azad Kashmir, Nov 30 (AFP) Winter weather in Pakistan's quake zone has tripled the number of people treated in hospital, with more than 1,000 a day seeking help for pneumonia and other ailments, officials said Wednesday. But the United Nations dismissed local media reports that eight people had died, saying it was still only aware of two children amongst the 3.5 million people left homeless by the October 8 disaster who had perished. The UN's emergency coordinator in Pakistan, Jan Vandemoortele, visited Muzaffarabad Wednesday and said he was encouraged by what he had seen but added that the race against time to help survivors continues. "I was here on the 10th of October and now I am back here I see this is a very different place," Vandemoortele said. "The most rewarding thing to see is that people have taken charge of their lives, the economic activity is growing, the spontaneous reconstruction is growing, children are going back to school," he added. "But this is very important -- we cannot be complacent, nobody can relax, we still have a huge job to do."(Posted @ 15:00 PST)
UNICEF, UAE Joints hands in quake relief work UNITED NATIONS, Nov 30(APP) The UNICEF has joined with important partners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in a strategy that combines financial contributions with hands-on action to help meet the needs of children in the quake ravaged areas of NWFP and Azad Kashmir. UNICEF agreements with the UAE Red Crescent Society and Dubai Aid City have produced cash donations, technical support, medical teams and regular planeloads with basic relief items. For example, the UAE Red Crescent Society and UNICEF signed an agreement to manage a donation of $500,000 from the UAE to support UNICEF's measles immunization campaign, which will be supplemented by a team of Emirati nurses and medical experts to help oversee the vaccination effort on the ground. The post-quake measles campaign, organized jointly by UNICEF, the WHO and Pakistan's Ministry of Health, seeks to immunize 4 million children in relief camps and health centres at an estimated cost of $8 million. "Replicating the tsunami humanitarian response model with relief operations centralized in Dubai has proven highly effective, and the UAE Red Crescent Society has played an important role in protecting children against the spread of disease," UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah said on signing the agreement in Dubai. (Posted @ 10:25 PST)
UN refugee agency warn of more deaths due to cold among quake victims UNITED NATIONS, Nov 30 (APP): The U.N. refugee agency Tuesday warned that with the first cold-related deaths among Pakistani earthquake survivors, many more casualties could be expected as temperatures drop below freezing point, especially at higher elevations. For weeks, UN agencies have predicted a second wave of deaths from the 8 October quake if shelter, medicines and other vital supplies were not rushed into hundreds of thousands of victims in remote areas ahead of the harsh Himalayan winter. So far, the UNHCR has airlifted over 80,000 blankets and tens of thousands of plastic sheets to survivors in high-altitude villages in the Allai and Leepa valleys. But bad weather is hampering aid delivery. Helicopters were grounded on Sunday although the airlifts resumed Monday. "Some roads in the Neelum and Allai valleys have been blocked by snow or landslides. Aid convoys are now driving on slippery roads that could be hit by further mudslides," UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told a news briefing in Geneva. "On lower elevations, we're preparing the ground for more people forced to leave their homes in the upper valleys because of the bitter cold. In the last two days, the army has reported 100 families per day moving down from the Kaghan valley," she added. "The recent camp arrivals have come in bad shape, many of them already weakened by pneumonia. We have been winterizing the camps by providing two plastic sheets per tent and three blankets per person." Overall, UNHCR has flown in more than 20 thousand family tents and hundreds of thousands of blankets and other vital supplies. Water and sanitation needs will become even more urgent as more people come down to live in planned and spontaneous camps. "In order to save lives today, the pledges (at Donors c0nference) must be fulfilled immediately. Moreover, donors must allow flexibility in use of the funds," five UN human rights experts said in a joint statement last week. (Posted @ 10:25 PST)
Snowfall, rain hamper relief operations ISLAMABAD, Nov 30 (APP): The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Pakistan Tuesday said "the onset of winter conditions has severely hampered the relief operations of the U.N. and other humanitarian organizations," grounding some helicopters and thwarting some road deliveries. "This development shows why it is very important for us to do more and quickly, too as we keep the focus on the relief phase," an agency statement quoted U.N. Emergency Operations Chief Andrew MacLoed as saying.(Posted @ 09:55 PST)
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