Help Pakistan! is a group dedicated to getting needed humanitarian support to flood ravaged Pakistan, and disseminating information pertaining to the floods to the dailykos community at large. Our goal is getting donations to those people who need it most.
If you have a negative comment pertaining to Pakistan, its people, its culture, or its relationship with the United States, please refrain from making it here. If you would like to be a part of our group, please click the picture at the very bottom of this diary. We would love more volunteers to help us with the burden of getting a diary up every day. Thank you, dailykos, for your time.
Admittedly, I have exactly zero money available to donate to flood relief efforts in Pakistan. The best I can do is post this diary and keep the Pakistan flooding on the agenda. We also support ongoing relief efforts in Haiti.
At the risk of politicizing this too much, Glenn Beck managed to attract more than 100,000 about 87,000 people (though Beck claims 400,000) to the National Mall today to cry about their tax bills, even though most of them would see a tax cut under current Democratic proposals. These people will eat in some classy restaurants tonight and go home to their comfortable homes tomorrow while Pakistani children starve and drown.
If they cared as much about others as they care about them selves, they could have taken a $1 donation from everyone. But I guess we'll have to do it. I would challenge this community to donate even one penny for every Beckerhead. That's $1,000 $870. I wish I had the money to match your generosity. That's almost one shelter box.
Update: Inspired by Aji, let's act in the giving spirit of Dr. King.
Here's how it looks from the air:
(From the U.S. Army's Flickr stream)
U.S. Army Sgt. Paul Gilman, crew chief with B Co., Task Force Knighthawk, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, TF Falcon, from Pembrook Pines, Fla., looks out of the back of his Chinook at the water damage while flying the Swat valley in Pakistan, Aug. 5, 2010. Photo by Sgt. Monica K. Smith
And on the ground
From One UN Pakistan's Flickr stream.
MULTAN: PAKISTAN: 24-August-2010..People trying to survive at the rubble of their homes amid flooding near Multan. Photo: Visual News Pakistan
Here the latest news and video from Pakistan.
Cotton Production
Cotton is a key cash crop in Pakistan and the floods have destroyed a large portion of the crops. That means even Pakistanis who have textile jobs will be feeling the effects of the flood for years to come.
As the flood waters head south, millions more people are feeling the effects of the disaster. The Indus River is the lifeline for many Pakistan farmers. Now it is destroying the country. From the New York Times:
Pakistanis Scramble to Stay Ahead of Floodwaters
THATTA, Pakistan — This town had already been evacuated because of the threat of flooding, but it filled up again on Saturday with tens of thousands of people fleeing floodwaters that had inundated surrounding districts and villages after the Indus River broke its embankments in several places.
Families camped in front of the courthouse, in a park, in an ancient cemetery, in schools, at intersections and on scrub land for miles on the edge of the town. There was no organization to it: people tied their cattle to bushes, rigged up awnings with colored cloth on sticks or tipped rope beds on their ends to create shade from the stifling heat of 104 degrees. Within hours thousands more people had swarmed into the town, many of them on foot.
~snip
The army remains on full alert as the river is expected to remain at high flood stage for 8 to 10 days, Major Alamgir said.
Unicef triples its appeal for aid.
Unicef Trebles Appeal For Pakistan Funds
Unicef has trebled its appeal for funds to help women and children affected by flooding in Pakistan.
The charity had asked for £30m but now says it needs £90m from the public.
The organisation wants to spend more cash on increasing access to drinking water and improving sanitation.
It says three million sachets of oral rehydration salts and 1.5 million doses of zinc for are needed for two million children under five suffering from diarrhoea in the south of the country.
Distressing stories from on the ground:
Pakistan flood victims need dignity as much as aid
The man stood so close to me that I could feel the heat of his face.
Each word he spits out rapid fire, his thoughts disjointed by rage. Every word follows the first so quickly, I have trouble understanding him.
That he was angry, though, was clear.
"We are not animals, this is not feeding time at the zoo. We are humans, yet the police beat us, they throw food at us. We are not animals," he said.
The Pakistan government is planning for the future.
Presidency meetings focus on rebuilding infrastructure
ISLAMABAD: A number of meetings held at the presidency on Friday discussed the havoc wreaked by floods across the country and decided to take effective measures to rebuild the devastated areas.
In one of the meetings, President Asif Ali Zardari urged the housing sector to adopt innovative technology, design and material to rebuild the houses destroyed by floods so that these could withstand future disasters.
Finally, this editorial from the Daily Times:
EDITORIAL: Losing faith in humanity
The Taliban have hinted at attacking foreign aid workers who are helping the flood victims in Pakistan, citing their presence as "unacceptable". Hundreds of foreigners arrived in the country following the worst ever floods to hit Pakistan in living memory. In the wake of their arrival, US officials have warned of attacks by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) after receiving some intelligence reports.
~snip
By threatening the aid workers, the Taliban have once again proved how much ‘sympathy’ they really have for the hapless flood victims. They only want to use them as cannon fodder by recruiting them, and have no real desire to help them. We have seen such campaigns in the past, but this time all their efforts to this effect should be thwarted.
Please help. This is about people suffering and dying. The political situation should be an after thought, if it is an issue at all.
And just one more picture, again from One UN Pakistan.
This family got flour from Australia and vegetable oil from the United States. Your efforts are making a difference.
Greg (Three Cups of Tea, Stones Into Schools) Mortenson's non-profit (CAI) recommends supporting a local (Pakistani) group to which donations will likely have a large, immediate, and lasting impact-
Human Development Foundation
http://www.hdf.com
(800) 705 1310
DONATE
• • • • • •
Other groups that deserve support as well.
Doctors without Borders (MSF):
DONATE
The Red Cross:
DONATE
OXFAM:
DONATE
UNICEF:
DONATE
Toll free: 1-800-FOR-KIDS (1-800-367-5437)
Text: "Text FLOODS to 864233 (UNICEF) to donate $10"
Shelterbox:
DONATE
ShelterBox tents in Shishkat upper Hunza, Pakistan
• • • • • •
From the US State dept.
How You Can Help:
Text "FLOOD" to 27722. Your $10 will go to the State Department Fund for Pakistan Relief that Secretary Clinton announced August 19, and is part of a new effort to bring attention to the need for aid.
Text "SWAT" to 50555 ; $10 goes to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees fund for flood victims
• • • • • •
Previous relief diaries about the floods in Pakistan (with the Help Pakistan tag):
Aug 27: HEY - Where are you people?
Aug 27: Millions without shelter - Help Pakistan
Aug 27: Helping Pakistan: $270 toward ShelterBox #139
Aug 27: Pakistan Floods News Update: August 27th, 2010
Aug 26: Humanitarian Relief Needed in Pakistan. Women and Children First
Aug 25: The first climate refugees are in Pakistan
Aug 24: They're Dying (sister diary to "Pakistan Flood: Different Growing Up")
Aug 24: Pakistan Flood: Different Growing Up (sister diary to "They're Dying")
Aug 23: Forgotten Humanity: Tragedy Continues in Pakistan
Aug 23: New flooding in the south, thousands more displaced - Help Pakistan
Aug 22: Aid Pakistan With Money or Action
Aug 22: Why?
Aug 21: ... and a river runs through it: Pakistan's WaterWars
Aug 21: Help-Pakistan!: Devastation
Aug 20: Pakistan Floods - reporting/working from the inside
Aug 20: Pakistan Relief: Just watch the video
Aug 19: A slow moving Tsunami ....
Aug 19: Anti-Muslim Bigotry: Not just for wingnuts anymore
Aug 18: Pakistan Floods... Please Help
Aug 18: Chaos is the new Normal {Earthship Wednesday}
Aug 18: EcoAdvocates: A green model in the Gulf
Aug 17: Please Help Pakistan... Please ... Update: New Flood Warnings
Aug 16: pakistan III: the human face of climate change: ecojustice
Aug 16: Pakistan still needs help; lots of it. Floods displace 20+ Million
Aug 14: Pakistan: 6 Million Without Water (How to Help)
Aug 9: Media ignores "Worst Humanitarian Disaster In Recent History"
Jul 31: Pakistan needs help. Floods kill 800+, displace 1 Million
• • • • • •
We are looking at what may be the worst humanitarian crisis the world has seen in a century.
Some of us at Daily Kos use a Google group to help organize for the crisis in Pakistan. Anyone who would like to get involved or get alerts when a new HELP PAKISTAN diary is posted, please join.
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Now crossposted at Progressive Electorate.
