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Quake Appeal Update April 2006

The winter has passed, blankets have been well used and the quake victims turn their attention once again to an uncertain future. Those who have been able to find family to care for them elsewhere have already left the ruined towns and villages, but millions are left without housing or income to sustain them for the longterm.

Landlords and farmers have all recieved a measure of compensation from the government, but most urban dwellers from Mansehra, Abbottabad, Muzzaffarabad were tenants, barely able to generate enough income to pay rent and food for a good month. These are the people who were the worst hit, especially if the family unit lost so many members it has been left with disabled members, no decision makers or potential income generators. Most of all it is important to keep the children involved in education, even thought this was both minimal and expensive for them before the disaster.

After Easter, we are sending a team to visit the resident YWAMers and volunteers who comprised the rapid response teams. There will be staff training sessions as well as planning times looking at ways to assist the survivors to become self-sufficient again.

We have bought a plot of land that we wish to develop into a multipurpose residential and training facility and provide temporary shelter for quake survivors at risk. Target: £40,000.

We are planning to build small houses in an agricultural area to enable us to resettle some family units in an area away from the quake area. Survivors are understandably terrified of experiencing another quake and many more are forecast for the entire region. To buy 5 acres of this land we need £5,000. Houses will cost a few thousand each after that.

We are also building up a welfare fund to enable us to give grants to families who need business start-ups to generate income once again. They usually need to relocate to another area in order to do this as the infrastructure has been devastated in the towns of the quake area. Start-ups can be anything from £200-£5,000 depending on the number of people involved and the nature of the business. Our target for this year is £200,000.

Visit www.ywamrelief.org.uk for more news and photos.


Quake Appeal Update February 2006

Temperatures drop in the quake zone every night and the winter will not give way until April. The three thousand items loaded into the freight container at the YWAM centre in Harpenden UK are still being distributed in the Quake Zone and are making a difference to cold people whose main activity at the moment is survival.

The crutches and zimmer frames as well as mounds of blankets were delivered to hospital camps and scattered families across the mountainsides in the Abbottabad/Mansehra region.

Some individuals whose injuries had kept them bed bound or of limited mobility were thrilled to have the extra support to enable them to get around even on the rough terrain. People here are used to hardships, as the mountains are often not friendly places. Some of the children have no sandals let alone shoes, but this is not uncommon at the best of times. Newly fallen rocks and broken masonary may be sharp, however, and the risk of minor foot injury remains with the risk of further infections especially due to the unusually high population density now that many are forced to live an outdoors 'mountain-life'.

In the tent cities, children are attending sporadic classes, but the months pass slowly for those who are less centralised, camping outside what remains of their lost homes under the rubble, waiting for private bulldozers or the army to unearth whatever remains of their earthly goods trapped under the bricks and blocks of concrete. Their homes are where where they banked their life savings, so moving is not an option for most people, destitution is unthinkable, especially for women and children.

Some of our teams are working in the tent cities teaching women to sew quilts in an effort to generate local cottage industries that will sustain them in the future.

Visit www.ywamrelief.org.uk more news and photos.

Quake Appeal Update November 2005

YWAM's Rapid Response Team in Pakistan is regularly visiting people in the region, taking relief goods such as warm blankets, heaters, lanterns, food, plastic sheets.

The team hires big buses and loads them up with goods and young volunteers. They drive all night to reach the Mansehra, Abbottabad region. There they pick up more volunteers, distribute goods and then make their way up the mountain roads to Muzaffarabad. The local volunteers know the area well and help them track down groups of people in need. A month on into the disaster there are villages and families who still have no basic supplies. There are so many, it is indescribable.

Back at home, these efforts are causing quite a stir. "What are you doing?", demanded the neighbours one day, when they saw the big buses parked outside the centre for hours, filling up with goods and people. Impressed by the answers and the quality of the items being loaded, local people are now offering their goods or services to the team, convinced of their integrity and compassion for people in distress.

YWAM England is continuing to appeal for funds to resource the Pakistan team's compassionate community relief response to a nightmare scenario. you can still give by clicking here.

This long-term team in Pakistan is normally involved in relief of poverty through skills training, business start ups, 'debt' repayments-to release bonded labourers from lifetime servitude, marriage counselling, family reconciliation, leadership development.



The latest on the appeal

As of 14 November 2005, donations made to the YWAM England Pakistan Quake Appeal has provided blankets and other basic support to many hundreds of people.

Thank you to all those of you who have given so generously.

For more information, please contact enquiries@oval.com.

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