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Cold and hungry, Pakistan quake children start to sicken

Pakistani children sit by a cooking fire as an earthquake survivor family prepares food at a makeshift camp in Kan Bangla, some 85 kms north of the provincial capital Quetta, on October 30, 2008. The death toll from a powerful earthquake in southwest Pakistan could climb above 300, officials said, as rescuers struggled to deliver aid to remote villages. Most of the victims were killed or injured in outlying villages in the mountainous region bordering Afghanistan when their mud-brick houses were flattened. Photo courtesy AFP.

US offers one million dollars in aid to quake-hit Pakistan
The US government said Thursday it is sending one million dollars in aid to the victims of an earthquake in Pakistan, and would provide more assistance if needed. "USAID has provided an initial one million dollars in assistance to help meet the immediate needs of those affected by the earthquake," the US Agency for International Development said in a statement. The agency said the aid would be distributed through international and non-governmental organizations. "We are working alongside the Pakistani government and the international community to assess the damage. These assessments will help determine what additional assistance the US might be able to provide," it said. In a statement, USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore said the organization "is continuing to monitor the situation and is prepared to provide additional assistance if needed." The death toll from the earthquake in southwest Pakistan could climb above 300, officials said Thursday, as rescuers struggled to deliver aid to desperate survivors. Multiple aftershocks continued to rock impoverished Baluchistan province, creating fresh fears among survivors who prepared to spend a second night in the open in freezing temperatures as the cold winter set in. USAID said Washington has in the past given more than two billion dollars for programs in Pakistan to improve health, education, economic growth, democratic governance and to rebuild areas hit by the October 2005 earthquake.
by Staff Writers
Kan Bangla, Pakistan (AFP) Oct 30, 2008
Veiled mothers huddled with feverish babies in ruined Pakistani villages Thursday as sickness started to bite among earthquake survivors who spent a freezing night beneath open skies.

In crumbled settlements that no aid workers had reached more than a day after the powerful quake that killed at least 215 people, shivering residents begged for shelter, food, medicine -- or just any help at all.

"We had so few blankets to cover ourselves during the night that we only had one between six children," farmer Shahnawaz Khan told an AFP reporter who reached the remote southwestern village of Kan Bangla.

"The cold was so severe that some of our children have fallen ill," he said, pointing to some wailing infants as their mothers tried to provide them with warmth and comfort.

Khan said some 20 people died when their mud-brick, straw-roofed homes collapsed in the 6.4-magnitude quake, but said they had not had any contact from Pakistani authorities or aid groups.

The village, which lies about 35 kilometres (25 miles) from the historic hill town of Ziarat, is one of a cluster in impoverished Baluchistan province that were worst affected by the quake.

Jaan Baba, an injured elderly man, showed makeshift tents that villagers had constructed with whatever they could scavenge from the shells of their houses. His own house was reduced to a pile of rubble.

"Some of the children do not even have sweaters or shoes and they are very gravely exposed to the weather," he told AFP.

"Many of our villagers slept in the dry riverbed across the road. No one from the government or any rescue agencies have come to help us," Baba said. "We need shelter, blankets, food and medical help as soon as possible."

Most of the inhabitants eke out a living by working at apple farms for which Ziarat and its surrounding villages are famed in Pakistan, but Baba said they would now be busy just trying to survive.

In Kawaz, another badly hit village, survivors huddled around weak campfires.

"It was so cold at night we thought we would freeze," villager Abdul Qadeer told AFP. "We have been waiting for help but we have no tent, no food, no medicine for my children."

Fears of further aftershocks kept many people in the open overnight even when their houses were still standing. A 6.2-magnitude tremor rocked Baluchistan 13 hours after the initial, pre-dawn quake.

The mayor of Ziarat district hit out at the government for failing to help survivors. "I am not satisfied with this operation," Dilawar Kakar told AFP.

"The help we expected from provincial and federal government, we are not getting. It is very slow."

People from the village of Gogi, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Ziarat, decided not to wait for help, instead travelling to Quetta to draw attention to their plight.

"The problem is that Gogi is situated some five kilometres off the road. A few volunteers came and left but delivered nothing," villager Mohammad Mateen told reporters.

As with the 2005 earthquake that killed 74,000 people in northern Pakistan, it was hardline Islamist groups, some with militant links, that were among the first on the scene.

One of them, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, has been listed by the US as a "terrorist organisation" because it is the political wing of the outlawed Kashmiri militant group Laskhar-e-Taiba.

Its officials were handing out blankets, food, milk and biscuits in the area as early as Wednesday night.

"We do not believe in politics but to serve the people when they need it the most," Mohammad Qasim, a local Jamaat-ud-Dawa official told AFP.

"We will also send tents to the people soon."

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Desperate search for Pakistan quake survivors as dead buried
Wam, Pakistan (AFP) Oct 29, 2008
Wailing villagers on Wednesday dug through rubble with their bare hands in a desperate search for loved ones missing since a devastating quake struck this village in southwest Pakistan.







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