November 19, 2005

Islamabad, Pakistan

[Editor's note:] Ben MacDonald, 23, of Raeford, NC, accepted, apparently eagerly and without second thought, an invitation extended by Lauren Mueenuddin to travel to Pakistan to assist in relief efforts organized immediately after the massive earthquake in its northern territories. Lauren and her husband Tamur Mueenuddin work in the field of international heath in Pakistan.

(Ben and Holly, his mother, not his girl friend.)

He cajoled the University of North Carolina in Asheville, NC to accept this 'mission' as the last requirement for his degree, sub-let his apartment, said goodbye to friends, and packed his gear.

His parents, Holly and Ken, took a big breath and put him on the plane in Raleigh, NC, on Sunday November 11, with much trepidation, some because Ben had no visa, only the promise by Azir Tamir, of Pakistani International Airlines, who existed only as a muffled telephone voice, of a meeting at JFK airport at which he would 'arrange' every thing. Mr Tamir assured Ben that while he would be boarded with no visa, one would be waiting in Islamabad.

The counter clerk expressed total disbelief when presented the naive notion that a passenger bound for Pakistan expected to board with no visa. Only the arrival of Mr Tamir, at Ben's frantic cell phone call urgings, and the fortuitous intervention of two influential fellow passengers prevented him from being left sitting defeated by the 'fates' in the departure hall. Upon arrival in Islamabad, a visa issued promptly, Mr Tamir's promise fulfilled, Ben was picked up and whisked away by Lauren and his grand aunt Katherine Ingram to the F-6/3 district of Islamabad.

Here's how 'great aunt' Katherine described his arrival:

"He arrived last night and it seemed that he was very glad to find us at the arrival gate. It is always daunting to arrive in a Pakistani airport, because there are huge crowds of men (mostly) waiting for the arrival of relatives from far away places. Lauren and I felt the same way, waiting for our long awaited family member -Ben- arriving from New York. We had only to wait an hour, the flights are often late, and we were very glad to welcome Ben. We took him home in the car driven by 'Mufafa,' Liam's name for Mustafa, the trusted driver/cook/babysitter. Mustafa was wearing his turban and shawl... cutting a fine, exotic figure. We gave Ben a tour of the house, heated up some dahl and rice, chatted until 2:00 am and offered him a pill and put him to bed. "

And here are Ben's initial thoughts:

"Before I left for Pakistan, I tried to prepare myself mentally for what I would encounter.

What a futile effort!

The morning after I arrived in Islamabad, Katherine, Josh (a young English 18 year old, a nephew of a close friend of Lauren's from Washington, DC) and I went with Hamid, an English-speaking Pakistani man that Katherine met at a mental heath workshop, to take a load of blankets and floor mats to the H-10 camp in Islamabad. The camp, which is the largest in the city, is laid out like a small city with a network of narrow, dusty roads connecting block after block of canvas tents staked out on the bare ground. I couldn't get an official figure, but the guards I spoke with said there were at least 10,000 people in this one camp alone.

As soon as we got out of the car, we were surrounded by a crowd of people anxious for anything we had. At that point we only had about 5-10 blankets and maybe 10 mats to give out. Our immediate problem, then, was trying to figure out who, out of all these people, needed the few supplies that we had the most.

With Hamid's help, we found several women who had just delivered babies while in the camp, so we gave them most of the supplies that we had. Before long, however, chaos broke out around us. Once people realized what we were up to, they flocked around us, every person reaching out with eager hands. The few items we had left disappeared in a matter of seconds, and we had to jump back in the car to avoid being injured by the mob. Thus, we learned very quickly that we'd need to devise a better, more organized plan for delivering supplies.

The next day, Katherine and I went with Hamid back to the H-10 camp, this time to get a better assessment of the people's needs. On this second trip we didn't take any supplies with us, so we were actually able to spend some time talking with the people living in the camp. The stories that people told were unfathomable.

One woman we spoke with lost six children in the earthquake.

Six children!

She said that of her two children who did survive, one was still in the hospital after having both legs amputated, and the other was living with her in the camp. Such stories are tragically common throughout the camp.

As we walked from one tent to another, the women stood silently in the doorways with infants on their hips and small children tugging at their skirts. Men gathered around giant cooking pots, trying to cook enough food to feed everyone in the camp. Even seeing it first hand, it is hard to comprehend the loss that these people have endured.

I can't do it. I try, but I cannot.

Every evening I have gone home to a comfortable house knowing that the people I care about are safe and sound. It's something we take for granted.

Despite the extent of the devastation, the people's spirits seemed amazingly intact. In spite of everything, children still ran around the streets laughing and flying their homemade kites. It was a true testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

Because the H-10 camp is in Islamabad, the conditions are much better there than in the camps in the northern mountains. Although they don't have much at all, they are being supplied with the basic needs essential for survival.

Therefore, Katherine, Hamid and I decided to focus our resources on the people in the northern mountains, where the conditions are far, far worse.


So, after leaving H-10, we went to the market and placed an order for 100 foam mattresses, 100 heavy shawls, and 200 polyester filled blankets. We have hired two trucks (and we're talking about hiring a third) to take the supplies to Mansehra next Thursday, and Katherine, Josh, Hamid and myself are going to follow the trucks up north to ensure that they are properly delivered and distributed.

This time, however, we are going to let a specific government agency (essentially, their equivalent of a health department) pass out the supplies for us, so as to avoid the mob scene that we experienced in the H-10 camp.

As of right now, the first snows have not yet started falling in the mountains, but they could come at any time. Thus, we have a small window of opportunity to do as much as we can while the weather conditions are still somewhat favorable. After the snows begin, the situation will become exponentially worse. So, we're hoping to do as much as we can as quickly as possible.

Lauren Left yesterday to join Tamur in the mountains. Tamur works for UNICEF and is the emergency relief coordinator in the Kaghan Valley. Lauren is consulting for the NGO, PSI, of Washington, DC, assessing the requirements for water purification and sanitary systems to serve the large tent camps there. (see a description of the conditions in the tent camps.) I know that she was glad to be able to get out in the field. They are both incredibly devoted to helping the people affected by this catastrophe, and the work that they are doing is amazing. Tamur has been gone since the earthquake happened, and from what I can tell he's personally spearheading much of the relief effort. I admire them both for their commitment to the work they do. If you look at the big picture, it's really overwhelming.

Thus, I think all that anyone can do is take it step by step, one day at a time, and slowly progress will be made. It's going to take the support of the entire world though. Every little bit helps, every penny, every hand and every mind. No amount of support is too small, and to everyone who reads this I extend a call to action. Please."

Dr. Tamur Mueenuddin leads a UNICEF vaccination team

The UN children's agency has started a massive campaign to immunise 800,000 children affected by last month's quake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Unicef hopes to vaccinate the children against various potentially fatal diseases, such as polio and diphtheria, in two weeks.

......The senior Unicef health official in the field, Dr Tamur Mueenuddin, said it was a race against time to reach children from scattered communities in areas high up in the mountains as winter snows begin to fall.

Dr Mueenuddin said the vaccination teams could be flown to these high altitude areas by the Pakistani authorities. (See complete BBC report here.)

Danielle Brunon... Donor ...and Activist

Danielle Brunon, the managing Director of BCL Communications, a consultancy located in Paris, France, is a former classmate at Barnard College and Columbia University and a current dear friend of Lauren Mueenuddin.

She responded to the initial news of Lauren's involvement in the October 2005 Pakistan earthquake relief effort with a generous donation to the Mueenuddin Fund, and she became motivated to go further and to offer her friends and colleagues and clients an opportunity to participate also. She wrote the following as a succinct statement of the situation in Pakistan and she plans to send it to her list.

If you're inclined to notify your friends, please make use of any of the material on this blog, including Danielle's.

A "children's catastrophe": Help local relief workers assist Earthquake victims in Pakistan

A human tragedy continues to claim lives each day in Northern Pakistan.

The magnitude 7.6 earthquake that struck the Kashmir region on October 8 killed nearly 80,000 people. Almost as many were injured, and tens of thousands of buildings collapsed. An estimated 4 million people have been left homeless, and the very cold winter is approaching the mountainous, precarious area. The aftermath of the quake has been referred to as ‘the children’s catastrophe.’

Lauren Ingram Mueenuddin, an international health and social development consultant married to Dr. Tamur Mueenuddin, a Chief Health Officer for UNICEF, has created the Mueenuddin Fund to help some of the the millions of victims, many of them children, left homeless and vulnerable after the recent earthquake in Pakistan.

Lauren is a Médecins du Monde, World Bank and Save the Children consultant and a graduate of Barnard College and Columbia and Johns Hopkins universities. After having lived in Pakistan off and on for over ten years, she moved to Islamabad in 2003 with Tamur, who was born in Pakistan and reared and educated in the US, and their three sons.

She is currently working to coordinate local efforts, such as the creation of a temporary shelter for the legions of orphans descending into urban centers with no infrastructure to protect them. Since the disaster, Tamur has been reassigned as head of UNICEF earthquake relief efforts in the Kaghan Valley where he coordinates UN actions and conducts emergency medical procedures. Delivery of supplies into the devastated terrain has become almost impossible, except by air, but helicopters are scarce.

Help is urgently needed. Lauren writes in her blog: "There has been so much to do on all levels - it is really overwhelming - immediate urgent medical needs, shelter, food… establishment of temporary schools, mental health issues, disability issues.”International agencies and NGOs such as UNICEF, Mercy Corps, and Save the Children are all present, as is SOS Children’s Villages which is focusing on desperately-needed housing for unaccompanied children. Yet aid is often late in arriving or simply does not arrive at all, and many individuals and families are missed in the scramble for survival. So Lauren and Tamur, having exhausted their own resources, created the Mueenuddin Fund as an attempt to palliate some of these gaps based on their own on-the-ground awareness. By early November, within a few days of its creation, almost $20,000 had been collected by the Fund.

Lauren explains: "… we plan to do what we can to meet immediate needs, for as many, especially children, as we can reach. The greatest immediate needs are shelter from the cold food, blankets, cooking pots and oils, fuel, medicines.

This little 'fund' is not tax exempt nor can its use be wide spread or uniformly distributed, but if making a more personalized contribution appeals to you, Tamur and I promise to use any donation you choose to make wisely, effectively and quickly."

She pledges to keep donors informed as to the use of funds via email reports and her blog.Contributions can be made out by check to Dr. Tamur Mueenuddin and sent c/o James E. Ingram, 3036 Cambridge Place, NW, Washington, DC, 20007, USA, who manages the Fund account.

Resources: Mueenuddin fund blog:

SOS Children's Villages:

UNICEF Pakistan:

an inadeqaute but sincere response to the many inquiries from family and friends about how they might help.

Islamabad, November 1, 2005

Dear family and friends,

Thank you for all the emails and calls expressing concern and interest about the earthquake disaster here in Pakistan.

I am sorry not to have responded more completely or coherently in the past days on ways to help, but it’s difficult to begin to describe the breadth and depth of this crisis here in Pakistan and I have been intimidated to even try.

Also, I have been so busy that I literally have been unable to find the time until now to sit down and draft a note to you who I know want more information about how you might help.
There has been so much to do on all levels - it is really overwhelming -immediate urgent medical needs, shelter, food, protection of unaccompanied children, establishment of temporary schools, mental health issues, disability issues. The overall response by Pakistan and the international community has not been adequate.

Tamur has been in the the mountains since the day after the earthquake with UNICEF coordinating the UN response. I was with him for the first week, helping him try to manage the delivery of the first aid shipments in the area. It is difficult to describe how rugged and difficult the terrain is in this area even in the best of times (precarious mountain tracks careening through deep gorges and high mountains) spectacular in the best of times, but terrifying and forbidding in current circumstances.

Delivery of supplies into this area is difficult most of the year in any case, but now with landslides and roads washed out in a hundred places – it has been nearly impossible - except by air. Tamur and I spent the better part of the first week at the military helicopter landing pad helping get supplies onto helicopters and evacuating critically injured patients – mostly women and children who were the most affected – at nine in the morning when the quake hit, women were working in their homes and children were in school - many were simply buried alive.
There has been an acute shortage of helicopters. In one instance in which I was making the decision about when to leave, I personally had to decide to abandon injured children on the mountain side because there was no more room on the flight. It has been devastating to me, but deadly to them.

For the past two weeks, I have been in Islamabad with my children (three boys), working full time with USAID, attending UN coordination meeting, visiting hospitals, organizing shipments of tents and also trying to manage four orphan Kashmiri children, children of a beloved man who works for our family.

Two of the boys are mentally handicapped to start with, (sweet, mute little beings) but now are traumatized after spending a week in the freezing rain with their mother and grandmother and 15 of their school mates buried under the rubble. The boys walked for four days in a state of exhaustion and despair out of the mountain with their father to reach us.

The father then turned around, walked back to his village and carried out his injured daughter on his back. The stories like this are innumerable, daily and growing in number.
Everyone who has called or sent e-mails has asked how they might help.

There are several ways: donate to groups like UNICEF, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, which are all doing good work. Particularly effective, SOS Children’s Villages, a smaller NGO, is housing unaccompanied children. Its web address is: http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/

But, if you want to help in a very focused, direct, personal way, then let me describe what Tamur and I have agreed to do.

Every day, it seems, I go to the bank to get money to buy more food, oil, kerosene, some clothes, and mainly medicine to help those in our house and those we can get to in the shanty camps being formed here in Islamabad.

But, we have just about exhausted our own resources.

So Mom and Dad and a couple of our friends sent us some money and Tamur and I agreed to use it, as we used our own, to help who we can, as we encounter need.
This little 'fund' is not tax exempt nor can its use be wide spread or uniformly distributed according to the greatest need (which we have no real way to determine in any event) as perhaps the large public charities are able to do, but we plan to do what we can to meet immediate needs, for as many, especially children, as we can reach.

The greatest immediate needs are for food, blankets, cooking pots and oils, fuel, medicines.
If using a contribution in this way appeals to you, then Tamur and I will promise to use any you choose to make wisely and effectively and quickly.

Periodically we would inform you by e-mail of what we see happening in Pakistan, as we work in the relief effort, and how we are using the money you might choose to contribute.

Best Regards,

Lauren


If you would like to contribute to Lauren and Tamur's 'fund' which has been named the Mueenuddin Fund, please make a check out to Dr. Tamur Mueenuddin, mail it to me at 3036 Cambridge Place, NW, Washington, DC 20007 and I will deposit it to a separate account set up at CitiBank.

Lauren will be able to draw funds from the account and she will use the money to buy needed items for as many refugees as possible.

If the demand is such, consideration will be given to normalizing this fund as an LLC in the US and establishing it as a non profit organization with status as a tax exempt entity. At this moment, donations to the Mueenuddin Fund are not tax deductible.