A PAKISTAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF FUND
A FUND FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF LAUREN AND TAMUR MUEENUDDIN WHO WISH TO PARTICIPATE IN THE RELIEF OF SUFFERING OF THE PEOPLE OF NORTHERN PAKISTAN AFFECTED BY THE OCTOBER, 2005 EARTHQUAKE.
THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2018
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).
POSTED BY JIM INGRAM AT 9:23 AM 0 COMMENTS 
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2006
The Mueenuddin Fund Distributes Two Thousand Jackets in Balakot and Kawai.
Editors Note: (For this posting I'm serving both as the editor and the reporter. I traveled to Pakistan at the end of January to accompany Lauren on the last trip to the mountains to distribute warm clothes purchased with donations to the Mueenuddin Fund to earthquake victims in some unreached villages. Holly and Ken MacDonald were at Lauren's house at the same time visiting their son Ben who is interning with UNICEF. Holly and Ken are donors to the Fund and Ken joined the distribution group.)
Even though the air was cold and rain clouds were gathering in the Northeast, the kids lined up early this morning outside the gate to the compound. We had stored the remaining Mueenuddin Fund relief aid left oer the night before and had spent the night in tents similar to those provided to victims of the earthquake by UNICEF and others.
The children were told to come back when the last light sunlight faded into dusk before the distributions of the jackets and quilts the evening before has been completed.
After 4 months this high in the mountains, electricity for lights ...for any purpose...is still not restored.
Lauren, Ken MacDonald and I had arrived in Kawai, the home village of Junaid Ali Qasim, the Nazim of Balakot tehsil (roughly county) and the ‘sponsor’ (authenticator) of the Mueenuddin Fund distributions, in the afternoon of the day before.
We had driven up from Islamabad, stopping along the way at Mansehra to pick up the bundles of jackets from a warehouse managed by Atlas Logistics,
a French NGO, and in Balakot to see Junaid, at three small tents camps,(one supported by a Korean group that prepared hot meals) to distribute jackets and quilts,
to visit a new medical clinic being rebuilt by a group led by Zulfikar Ali, 
and to sit briefly with Saleem Khan, the former Nazim of Balakot city who we met seated in a bare open area among barbed wire, piles of rubble, and the remains of his collapsed house.
He described for us in great detached detail how he had stepped from his veranda into his garden just as the earthquake hit. His wife, three adult children, mother and grandmother all died before his eyes.
For our visit, he has arranged for a lunch brought by a man who appeared along a winding path walled by piles of barbed wire and debris and who reappeared and left with the empty dishes and payment. The hospitality always astonishes.
The only road above Balakot perches precariously, like a shelf on a kitchen wall, alternately dug from the steep hillside to create a lip or suspended out over the sheer drop below by ingeniously engineered atttached, unbelievably, to the sheer, almost vertical, slope. The earthquake on October 10 collapsed parts of the roadway leaving gapping sections simply missing or covered with debris from landslides. Bulldozers forced tracks through the rubble or military crews built new steel bridges to span the gaps.
Peering over the barrier-less edge induces that tingling sensation that comes to many when, while looking down from great height, one creeps slowly forward and peeps over the edge. The valley below causes a startle when the eye finally identifies as the river bed the tiny, sparkling, string-like ribbon.
This trip completed a process begun last fall when the earthquake prompted family and friends to create generously a small relief fund to be used by Lauren as she encountered need in the course of her relief job. (Tamur supplies a broad picture gained from his job as coordinator of heath for UNICEF in the affected areas.)
The spring like weather we encountered in Balakot, while a godsend (precisely how more than one victim described it: “The earthquake is Allah’s wrath and the good weather is his benevolence,”) forced us to consider the possibility that because the inevitable delays encountered in implementing a plan to purchase and distribute 2000 jackets might make the eventual delivery too late to be of real benefit.
But the visible breathe of the kids in line proved that the cold that comes with the dark (still 12 hours a day) in the recesses of this village and the cold rain about to begin still makes life miserable for everyone in Kawai, especially for the windows and children and the jackets and the quilts are not too late. They may not save lives from the deadly onslaught of heavy snow which, "Inshahallah," will not fall this year, but the jackets will make life a little more bearable until finally spring comes and stays.
On this trip, we were able to distribute on behalf of donors to the Mueenuddin Fund some 2000 jackets and quilts mostly of the size for children and women. Including purchase, transportation, temporary storage, some logistics, the cost per jacket is about $15.00. These jackets are lined and are waterproof with heavy knitted wrist and neck bands and good zippers and flat seams.
We did not hand out every single one of the 2000 jackets personally, but Lauren, almost exclusively, because she is able to say a word or two to each person or better intice a shy small girl with no parent up to the front of the distribution area, handed out at least a thousand, so we know that children and women received them because we watched them put them on and walk away toward home quickly with that special pride of possession a child can exhibit with a new garment.
.
Soon to come on this weblog are postings on the Electriciens sans Frontier initiative and the Eco-Dome project for widow families in Kawai village.
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Even though the air was cold and rain clouds were gathering in the Northeast, the kids lined up early this morning outside the gate to the compound. We had stored the remaining Mueenuddin Fund relief aid left oer the night before and had spent the night in tents similar to those provided to victims of the earthquake by UNICEF and others.
The children were told to come back when the last light sunlight faded into dusk before the distributions of the jackets and quilts the evening before has been completed.
After 4 months this high in the mountains, electricity for lights ...for any purpose...is still not restored.
Lauren, Ken MacDonald and I had arrived in Kawai, the home village of Junaid Ali Qasim, the Nazim of Balakot tehsil (roughly county) and the ‘sponsor’ (authenticator) of the Mueenuddin Fund distributions, in the afternoon of the day before.
We had driven up from Islamabad, stopping along the way at Mansehra to pick up the bundles of jackets from a warehouse managed by Atlas Logistics,
a French NGO, and in Balakot to see Junaid, at three small tents camps,(one supported by a Korean group that prepared hot meals) to distribute jackets and quilts,
to visit a new medical clinic being rebuilt by a group led by Zulfikar Ali, 
and to sit briefly with Saleem Khan, the former Nazim of Balakot city who we met seated in a bare open area among barbed wire, piles of rubble, and the remains of his collapsed house.He described for us in great detached detail how he had stepped from his veranda into his garden just as the earthquake hit. His wife, three adult children, mother and grandmother all died before his eyes.
For our visit, he has arranged for a lunch brought by a man who appeared along a winding path walled by piles of barbed wire and debris and who reappeared and left with the empty dishes and payment. The hospitality always astonishes.
The only road above Balakot perches precariously, like a shelf on a kitchen wall, alternately dug from the steep hillside to create a lip or suspended out over the sheer drop below by ingeniously engineered atttached, unbelievably, to the sheer, almost vertical, slope. The earthquake on October 10 collapsed parts of the roadway leaving gapping sections simply missing or covered with debris from landslides. Bulldozers forced tracks through the rubble or military crews built new steel bridges to span the gaps.
Peering over the barrier-less edge induces that tingling sensation that comes to many when, while looking down from great height, one creeps slowly forward and peeps over the edge. The valley below causes a startle when the eye finally identifies as the river bed the tiny, sparkling, string-like ribbon.
This trip completed a process begun last fall when the earthquake prompted family and friends to create generously a small relief fund to be used by Lauren as she encountered need in the course of her relief job. (Tamur supplies a broad picture gained from his job as coordinator of heath for UNICEF in the affected areas.)
The spring like weather we encountered in Balakot, while a godsend (precisely how more than one victim described it: “The earthquake is Allah’s wrath and the good weather is his benevolence,”) forced us to consider the possibility that because the inevitable delays encountered in implementing a plan to purchase and distribute 2000 jackets might make the eventual delivery too late to be of real benefit.
But the visible breathe of the kids in line proved that the cold that comes with the dark (still 12 hours a day) in the recesses of this village and the cold rain about to begin still makes life miserable for everyone in Kawai, especially for the windows and children and the jackets and the quilts are not too late. They may not save lives from the deadly onslaught of heavy snow which, "Inshahallah," will not fall this year, but the jackets will make life a little more bearable until finally spring comes and stays.
On this trip, we were able to distribute on behalf of donors to the Mueenuddin Fund some 2000 jackets and quilts mostly of the size for children and women. Including purchase, transportation, temporary storage, some logistics, the cost per jacket is about $15.00. These jackets are lined and are waterproof with heavy knitted wrist and neck bands and good zippers and flat seams.
We did not hand out every single one of the 2000 jackets personally, but Lauren, almost exclusively, because she is able to say a word or two to each person or better intice a shy small girl with no parent up to the front of the distribution area, handed out at least a thousand, so we know that children and women received them because we watched them put them on and walk away toward home quickly with that special pride of possession a child can exhibit with a new garment.
.
Soon to come on this weblog are postings on the Electriciens sans Frontier initiative and the Eco-Dome project for widow families in Kawai village.
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POSTED BY JIM INGRAM AT 6:20 PM 0 COMMENTS
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2005
A 'Tea Party' in the Islamabad children's hospital ward
The Islamabad hospitals are filled with refugees from mountain villages along the Mensehra, Balokot, and Muzafarabad route. Even in the best of times, relatives must provide the majority of daily care to patients...in this time of the earthquake the nursing staff available is minimal.And many of the patients are children. Often the parents of injured children are themselves in hospital... or worse... dead. So adult relatives remain with the children 24 hours a day... or sometimes there is no one to look after the child...its true...except for the rare visit by a staff person, the child fends for herself helped out of simple kindness by a mother or aunt of child in the next bed. Often the adults themselves are ill. And most have no means...no money...no belongings...to support their own needs....yet they remain faithfully besides the beds of the children. The fidelity is inspiring.
Desiree, Ben, and I had visited the hospital earlier. We were received first with apathy...and after a while suspicion... by both the children and the adults.
The circumstances in the hospital are grim. The rooms are bleak and crowded. And the food...dahl (lentils) and chapati (flat bread) is simple but colorless and unappetizing...just providing sustenance..only barely better than nothing.I know that I would not be able to manage in this circumstances.
The children and their caretakers need everything. We attempt to direct specifically some of the massive aid flowing into Pakistan here to the hospital. The needs are great all over the northern portion of the country. Without advocates individual situations like a hospital ward for children can easily be overlooked.
The Mueenuddin Fund certainly could not provide everything, so we decided to plan a party...a tea party... and to invite everyone in the ward. If this sounds frivolous in the midst of the deprivation, we concluded that two hours of excitement, newness, sweets, attention, music, people exhibiting some concern for them would be worth the time and the small amount of money.
Our idea of a 'tea party' is silver containers, flowers, tablecloths, colorful sweets, congenial surroundings, music.We hold the party at the hospital in a meeting room. We invite the whole children's ward and the staff. Many people from other wards stand outside the room and peer through the windows. We don't have enough for them.
The room is bright and clean with shelves and even a toy or two. It is a surprisingly pretty room, small yet enough if everyone sits on the floor. Some chose a raised platform in the middle. The food is fresh and colorful. We serve Pepsi, rather than tea, to drink because for the children colas are a real treat.
The results of the party exceed all our expectations.
In the images that accompany this posting, you will note that everyone puts on their best clothes and best faces.
The images belie the desperate everyday conditions.
We spread everything out on the floor on a big pretty starched tablecloth bracketed by fresh cream-colored gladiolus and we bring rugs and mats from Lauren's house and place them around the room.
Lauren singa 'Ghazals' with her music teacher. He plays the
tabla and the harmonium.
He also sings alone. His songsfrom Kashmir strike a chord. This style of Pakistani music is very emotional.
Everyone, including all of us (Ben, Desiree, Josh, Nyal, Kailen, Liam, Lauren, me) cries. The women weep into their shawls, the men shed tears that stream down their faces. I think that kind of communal grieving relieves the soul better than solitary grief.
Kailan, Nyal, and Liam (Lauren's and Tamur's children) serve the Pepsi and are sweet with the children. The reserve of the adults dissipates somewhat when they learn that Lauren speaks their language and sings their songs.
We cut up the many cakes, pass out candies, serve salty fried things.
We receive requests for clothing, warm socks and sweaters from the staff and the guardians.
Although we had earlier concluded that we couldn't meet their needs, we discover that its impossible to ignore the personal entreaties, so we decide that we would attempt to get together some packets for the families in the hospital ward.
Desiree, Josh, Ben, Nyal, Kailen, and even Liam, and I go to the International School in Islamabad to help create packs for individuals with boots, warm coat, wool wrap and 2 pairs of socks. All sizes...destined for the mountains.
UNISEF bought tons of these items from China...enough for 52,000 packs each to be loaded on trucks as it was filled. The school took on the packaging as a project and the project overwhelmed everyone. Three days into it and it is far, far from done.
Another huge load is coming in two days. At least a hundred people are required.
Tamur Mueenuddin, in his emergency response capacity with UNICEF, is coordinating the purchase, packaging, and delivery of these aid goods to the Muzzafarabad area.
Reports of many deaths and cold related illnesses in the mountains are coming in.
I find working at the International School today satisfying and will continue to do it. It is very concrete, and communal work, and you can send one's own personal blessing with each pack.
Kailen is fascinated with writing...he has learned the word 'caligraphy' and likes the sound of it. He writes SB (for small boy) on more than 30 individual bags so that they can be distributed with accuracy. Plus he watches Liam while the rest of us help out packing.
Katherine Ingram
POSTED BY JIM INGRAM AT 6:07 PM 0 COMMENTS
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2005
November 19, 2005Islamabad, 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."
POSTED BY JIM INGRAM AT 6:02 PM 0 COMMENTS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2005
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.)
POSTED BY JIM INGRAM AT 9:03 AM 0 COMMENTS
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2005
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:
POSTED BY JIM INGRAM AT 5:10 PM 0 COMMENTS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 01, 2005
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.
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.
POSTED BY JIM INGRAM AT 8:45 AM 0 COMMENTS
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