Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Islamabad (Fides Service) - Twenty homeless families have found shelter at a Catholic parish in the town of Abbottabad in Kashmir where the local Catholic community has opened churches, institutes and schools to people who lost their homes in the October 8 earthquake. “We want to help the poorest of the poor”, said Fr Inayat Patras, parish priest at Abbottabad. The families come from the town of Muzaffarabad seriously damaged by the earth tremor.
Caritas Pakistan has made Abbottabad its headquarters for the distribution of aid and gathering place for the injured in the situation of medical emergency, as medical personnel continues to arrive and more field hospitals are opened.
In the meantime hopes of reaching isolated mountain villages are failing as Winter approaches.
Humanitarian agencies are in a race against time. A thousand tons of aid has arrived, more is on its way from many different countries and the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is working with the Pakistan army and other partners to distribute the material as quickly as possible, an operation which could save lives.
UNHCR emergency teams sent to Mansehra, Bagh, Muzaffarabad, Balakot and Batagram are working with the army and other agencies to identify suitable sites at lower altitudes for camps for the homeless. In villages in this area at least 15,000 people need urgent assistance.
Besides official camps, there are spontaneous settlements all over the region and NGOs continue to distribute emergency aid to those in need.
In the meantime the UNHCR airlift to transport 860 tons of aid from its deposits in Turkey continues. UNHCR has also opened new line of aid from Iran, which started with the departure of a convey carrying 62 tons of aid from a deposit in Kemanshah close to the border with Iraq.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 29/10/2005 righe 27 parole 278)
