MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan – International relief officials are making a desperate appeal for cash for quake-ravaged Pakistan ahead of a key donor’s conference, saying Tuesday that only weeks remain to reach hundreds of thousands of villagers before winter cuts off their remote Himalayan communities.
With temperatures already dipping below freezing, the world has still come up with just a fraction of the tents needed to house the homeless.
One of the shortcomings of the relief effort so far has been tents. As many as 800,000 people are still believed to have no shelter more than two weeks after the calamity.
“If you can sum it up in one word, it’s ‘shelter,’” said John Moore, the head of aid in Pakistan for the Canadian International Development Agency.
An estimated 3.3 million people were left homeless by the quake. Despite a huge international relief effort, fears are growing that vulnerable communities could face a new disaster when winter arrives in a few weeks.
Temperatures dropped as low as 30 degrees in the mountains Tuesday – dangerous weather for those left outdoors.
Snow, landslide-blocked roads and funding shortfalls could mean more trouble as the weather worsens, the U.N. World Food Program warned.
Aid workers have just five weeks to get six months’ worth of food supplies into the most remote areas of Pakistan before they are cut off, the food program said in a statement.
“It must be clear to everybody that many people could die if we do not move more quickly,” said the group’s director for the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, Amir Abdulla. “We must have much more funding, much sooner, to gain as much speed as humanly possible in the face of gigantic logistics difficulties.”
Despite fresh appeals and warnings of a second wave of deaths, the United Nations said Monday it has received less than 30 percent of the $312 million it needs to help the victims. Pakistan has said rebuilding the area will cost $5 billion.
How to help
The following aid agencies are among those accepting contributions to help people affected by the earthquake in south Asia:
American Red Cross, International Response Fund, 800-HELP-NOW, www.red cross.org.
Baptist World Aid, 703-790-8980, www.bwanet.org/bwaid.
CARE Gift Center, 800-521-CARE, www.care.org.
Catholic Relief Services, 800-736-3467, www.catholicrelief.org.
Habitat for Humanity International, 800-422-4828, www.habitat.org.
United Methodist Committee on Relief, 800-554-8583, www.umcor.org.
World Concern, 800-755-5022, www.worldconcern. org.
More organizations can be found online at www. interaction.org.
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