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Help Survivors Of The Earthquake In Pakistan


Luke_Wilbur

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Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf Sunday appealed the United States and all other international organizations for donating generously as Pakistan is facing a national calamity and need help.

 

"I take this opportunity to appeal to the United States and all other international organizations to donate generously, We are facing a national calamity and need all the help that we can get," he said in his message on the World Food Day falling on Oct. 16.

 

He thanked the international community and the UN agencies which within no time have provided assistance to Pakistan.

 

Musharraf said that the earthquake which struck Pakistan on Oct. 8 is the most devastating in the country's history. It has caused immense loss of lives and property in remote and inaccessible hilly areas of the North West Frontier province and Azad Kashmir, he said.

 

Musharraf said that the World Food Day is once again being marked with celebration all over the world this year, with an innovative theme of "Agriculture and Intercultural Dialogue".

 

He complimented and appreciated the efforts of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations for promotion of agriculture across cultures, nations and civilizations and its drive to reduce hunger, malnutrition and poverty in the world.

 

The FAO, as a forum, he said, is facilitating interaction and dialogue among the diverse member nations and geographical regions and has been catalytic in establishing the pace of agriculture development across the globe.

 

Musharraf added that the organization's role as a policy advisor, a technical assistance agency and a center of excellence on agriculture, has no less been instrumental in assisting the many food deficit nations in producing and procuring food for its population.

 

Pakistan, he said, actively participates in all international and regional seminars, workshops and meetings to take part in intercultural dialogue and get benefit from the experience and findings of other nations.

 

"It also provides us opportunity and access to new and innovative recent findings, techniques, approaches, visions, solutions to various problems and thus help accelerate the tempo of agriculture development", he said.

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Pakistan Earthquake

Concern Works in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Donate Now to Help

http://www.concern.ne

 

Islamic Aid - Appeal

Donate online here to help the

survivors of Pakistan earthquake

http://www.islamic-aid.com

 

Pakistan

Help Earthquake Victims! Donate Now

World Vision - Giving Since 1950

http://www.WorldVision.org

 

Pakistan

Four million people affected,

support UNICEF's relief work now.

http://www.unicefusa.org

 

Help Earthquake Victims

Provide food, water, shelter.

Your help needed. Donate now.

http://www.charity.org

 

Help Earthquake Victims

Help us get tents to thousands of

people in Pakistan. Donate now.

http://www.unhcr.ch/donate

 

Pakistan Quake Relief

Support local organizations and

long-term rebuilding

http://www.give2asia.org

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Pope Benedict XVI called on the world community to be "swift and generous" in its help to South Asian countries overwhelmed by an earthquake that left tens of thousands of people dead and tens of thousands more injured.

 

The magnitude 7.6 earthquake hit Pakistan, India and Afghanistan Oct. 8, and officials said the death toll could top 40,000.

 

Pope Benedict said "it was with deep sadness" that he learned of the earthquake that caused "great damage and loss of life."

 

After praying his Oct. 9 noonday Angelus with the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square, he commended "to God's loving mercy all those who have died" and expressed his "deepest sympathy to the many thousands who are injured or bereaved."

 

The pope called on the international community to be "swift and generous in its response to the disaster."

 

He also asked God "to grant courage and strength to those involved in the task of rescue work and reconstruction."

 

The early morning earthquake was thought to have been the strongest earthquake to hit the region in a century.

 

Pakistani Bishop Anthony Lobo of Islamabad-Rawalpindi said homes and villages were leveled and some churches in his diocese were damaged.

 

"People have lost their homes and will need a little bit of everything," he told the Italian Catholic daily, Avvenire, Oct. 9.

 

Many families who live in the cities "will find hospitality with relatives," but those who live in small villages will have no one to turn to, he said. The bishop said he expected their local church efforts to concentrate on aiding the many villages that were "completely razed to the ground."

 

Two days after the earthquake struck, rescuers were still working to reach remote, mountainous areas. Heavy rains in some parts of Pakistan cut off access to rural parts of the country.

 

By Oct. 10, the death toll had topped 20,000, with hundreds of thousands homeless and tens of thousands injured.

 

A member of the Focolare movement told Vatican Radio Oct. 9 that some areas affected by the earthquake were accessible only by helicopter.

 

Veronica Semmier in Rawalpindi said the hardest-hit area was Kashmir, which has already borne the brunt of a war between Pakistan and India. She said the earthquake was "a tragedy on top of the tragedy" of war and poverty.

 

These natural disasters "always hit the poorest people who have fragile homes, the first ones to collapse," she said.

 

"But the people are enormously generous, everywhere. Everyone is trying to help where there can and however they can," she said.

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