Mueenuddin Fund Status Report... January 1, 2006

Editor's Note: I feel certain that most readers of this weblog also follow the media reports of the earthquake recovery in Pakistan. And I expect that you'd like to know how the Mueenuddin Fund team assesses the situation today as a comparison. The group reports that it is difficult to determine the overall status...a 'fog of relief work' as a 'fog of war' obscures the reality. But below is the best summary I can produce from their e-mails and phone calls.)

Immediately after the October 8, 2005 earthquake, epicentered in Pakistan's northern territories, the response from the international community was slow. Perves Musharaff, the President of Pakistan, and Jan Egeland, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, issued impassioned pleas, the media raised awareness and consequently the relief effort gathered momentum, energy added by long spells of good weather, higher than anticipated temperatures, plus the overall greater sense of urgency. In gross terms, aid is finally reaching much of the endangered population in northern Pakistan.But many in the higher remote mountain villages such as Tarkanal are still un-reached and many victims are very vulnerable to the winter cold. Often the widely distributed tents are not winterized. (see a winterized tent below.) Clean water and waste disposal is nonexistent or inadequate in many of the tent camps and damaged villages. (see open sewer in Shamlai below.) Disease is poised to strike in the close quarters of the refugee groups weakened by initial trauma and reduced resistance. International organizations are mounting massive programs. UNICEF, for example, has launched a campaign to address health needs using the concept of 'health packs.'

An individual pack — or "New Emergency Health Kit" (NEHK) — contains all the drugs, medical supplies and equipment necessary to cater to the health needs of 10,000 people for three months. Dr. Tamur Mueenuddin, with UNICEF, is now stationed in Bagh administering this program.Victims frequently will not leave their destroyed villages, insisting that animals must be cared for and belongings guarded.

An excerpt from ReliefWeb...a source the team considers meticulous...states: "...The villagers reported that part of the population had migrated to different places, leaving at least one person behind to guard the property and livestock and to collect relief. Families were staying further down the valley to protect young children from the winter cold. There was already some snow covering the ground and more was expected soon.

"Editor's Note: This overall assessment is probably in line with what you are reading. Here are some additional insights:

Mosques in the villages serve as vital sources of information and shelter.... the more secure courtyards of the religious centers serve as the locus of ad-hoc tent camps.The Pakistani Government adopted an early relief strategy that appears to be paying off: It decided to make cash grants to affected families, if their homes were destroyed or family members killed or injured rather than a massive campaign to provide specific goods. Because most of Pakistan is unaffected by the physical damage of the earthquake, the economic opportunities created by the massive destruction have caused local markets to flourish.

In late November, after the International community pledged large sums to the relief effort, Pervez Musharaff increased the amounts of the cash grants to substantial levels. For example, families were granted the rupee equivalent of $3100 ...more than the average annual family income. There are inefficiencies and inequalities in the program, inevitably, but the large infusion of cash into the economy has energized existing local markets to identify and to distribute efficiently goods the victims want.Markets are not perfect mechanisms, of course... gouging will occur... and no massive relief effort can avoid, unfortunately, the prominent display of human avarice. But in this instance, local markets seem to make materials and goods available widely and quickly, even in the mountains, arguably more effectively than bureaucracy-led schemes.

Editor's Note: (Now to put the Mueenuddin Fund into this context.)

The Fund has received over $50,000 in donations from all over the US, France, Italy, and Great Britain. After its initial forays into the mountains around Mensehra and Balakot to identify need and to deliver aid, the small group of volunteers who are administering the Fund took the time to better organize itself to spend effectively the increased amount of money.

First, it established a means for transferring money from Western banks to an account easily accessible in Islamabad by means other than an ATM card.

Next, it simplified its projects. For example, locating an adequate supply of inexpensive warm jackets that were delivered to Balakot in early December required days to accomplish. Arranging transportation in competition with the international relief efforts was challenging and occupied too much of the small group's time.

Further, it would continue to avoid projects that simply spent money in areas that the larger aid effort would eventually address. It concluded that it wanted to continue to put cash and goods, when possible, in the hands of families and especially widows (so frequently missed by the larger aid efforts) whose need is validated by a knowledgeable local official.

And it did not want to engage in efforts that strain the administrative capacities of the small group to identify victims, define needs, purchase aid, transport it, design fair distribution techniques, and finally distribute the aid.

As a result, the priorities established for the Mueenuddin Fund are:

1. Warm winter clothes...jackets, shawls, socks. Where it can identify small groups of overlooked or un-served families, it will use its source for these items to provide them directly.

For these items, purchase, transportation, and distribution is within the capacity of the group.

2. Corrugated iron sheets. The group has identified an excellent source of corrugated iron sheeting even though they are in short supply. Many victims use the debris of their destroyed homes to improvise shelters but lack adequate roofing. Providing these sheets is a very high priority of the Pakistani Government and media reports that much of the steel making capacity of Pakistan is devoted to manufacturing them, however, pockets of groups in the Balakot area, for example, remain without access. The 'mayor' of Balakot with whom the Mueenuddin Fund has established a close connection and in whom it has complete trust has proved an invaluable, reliable identifier of need. Ben and Desiree met with the Junaid the mayor and the military in Balakot to discuss how the Mueenuddin Fund could help further. (see image of meeting below.) Grants for sheets would be made with care not to duplicate other groups programs.

3. Cash grants to families to rebuild their lives. The Mueenuddin Fund will use its insight into specific situations gained through the field work of Lauren and Tamur Mueenuddin and the volunteer relief efforts of Katherine Ingram, Ben MacDonald, Josh Hooper-Kay, and Desiree Charmant to identify families who have been missed by the greater relief effort and where the inequalities of any broad system are evident.

4. Cash grants (for example, for small safe electric heaters) to families after Electriciens sans frontières (ESF,) a France-based NGO underwritten in part by Electricitie de France , the giant electricity supplier is able to restore some electric power. ESF is dedicating the efforts of a small group of volunteers and equipment flown in from France to provide power, especially for heating, to the Balakot area during the winter, utilizing the country's national electricity grid, heavily damaged in the earthquake. Of course, this is a national priority also, but the Mueenuddin Fund thinks it can identify un-met requirements and accelerate fulfillment through small cash grants.

In addition to the residents of Balakot, many large tent camps of refugees dot the outskirts of the town, so the need for power is concentrated and great. Danielle Brunon who is raising funds for the Mueenuddin Fund in France and other areas of Europe, visited Pakistan at the end of the year and traveled to Balakot to meet with officials, including Junaid its mayor, and increase the coordination between the Mueenuddin Fund and ESF. She anticipates that ESF may be able to make a substantial contribution. (look for her narrative to be posted shortly.)

5. Cash grants to families for books, uniforms upon the re-establishment of schools in Balakot. The mayor of this village is intent upon getting new schools open and accepting students. The town of Balakot provides an opportunity for the Mueenuddin Fund to fill niche needs not addressed by the large efforts. News sources indicate that more than 8,000 schools are conducting classes in tents, replacing the nearly 6,000 schools that were completely destroyed and the 3,750 that were damaged. The Mueenuddin Fund provided a short term bridging loan of about $6000 to an effort of citizens of Balakot led by the mayor to organize a group to qualify for Pakistani government and international support for establishing a new school. That loan has been re-paid.

Through the means of this weblog, regular postings will be made about the Mueenuddin Fund. The web address of this log is : http://mueenuddinfund.blogspot.com/ or just click here.

The Mueenuddin Fund Group, consisting of Lauren Mueenuddin, Ben MacDonald, Josh Hooper-Kay, Katherine Ingram, Desiree Charmant, Danielle Brunon and others who plan to join the group shortly, will administer the fund and pursue its goals.

Dr. Tamur Mueenuddin is consistently in the field directing UNICEF programs . He serves as a source of information about the overall relief effort and priorities but because of his official capacity does not participate in the administration of the Mueenuddin Fund.

If you would like to donate to the Mueenuddin Fund:

Mail personal checks payable to Lauren Mueenuddin*

In US Dollars to: Mueenuddin Fund % Jim Ingram, 3036 Cambridge Place, NW Washington, DC 20007 USA

In Euros to: Mueenuddin Fund % Danielle Brunon, 23 rue du Bac 75006 Paris, France

* Click here to learn why are checks made to Lauren Mueenuddin as an individual rather than Mueenuddin Fund as a legal entity.

Click this sentence to Donate online via PayPal (in multiple currencies).