Welcome to Petarian - Abdalian Relief Efforts

Progress Report of Oct 20-22, 2005

• Our surveys have been continuing on a daily basis with teams going to the homes destroyed in the earthquake on the hillsides. While our teams have been visiting different villages in the Rerah District, we now have a fair summary of the Samni village position. These details are as follows:
  
  o The total number of houses in Samni village proper were 475.
  o Out of these, our teams have visited 325 houses in person.
  o Of these 325 homes, 180 have been totally demolished by the earthquake, while all of the remaining 145 are partially damaged. None of the residents of these 145 partially damaged homes are entering their homes. They are all living out in the open.
  o The total est. population of Samni stands at 7,000.
  
  • Our initial strategy was to identify the heads of each clan and give the relief supplies to him to distribute evenly within his own larger clan. Over these past few days, we have become wiser. We discovered that the head of the clan was not passing the relief items to the poorer members of his clan, and would use it only for his own immediate family or hoard the goods.
  
  • Knowing this, we have changed our strategy now. Our teams visit the homes in person, and after assessment of the damage and the needs of the family, a signed slip is given to the residents of that home as to what they really need. Then one member of that home would have to go down to our camp at Rerah, where he is registered and the goods are given to him. This new procedure ensures that the really needy ones will get the aid.
  
  • As matters stand, we have issued following relief to Samni village. This does not include relief given to other villages.
  o Tents issued so far are 175. This village needs another 250 tents.
  o We have given food rations to 250 homes. Our assessment is that food is not as critical an issue. They do have supplies that have not been destroyed. However, we will continue to give rations as necessary over the coming few weeks. Our estimates are that we may need to replenish with around 800-1000 packets of food (each packet having rations for a week for one family).
  o We have given out blankets/razai's to 125 homes. We are currently short on these, and need blankets for another 250 homes (i.e. 750 blankets if we assume 3 per home at least).
  o We have given clothing to 350 people. However, we have noted that most of the people are reluctant to accept clothing, as they consider these clothes to be of inferior quality or used. It seems to be beneath their dignity to accept such clothes. We are now giving clothes only to those people who are willing to accept and wear them. We have excess of clothes and do not need any more.
  o We have given cooking utensils to 25 homes. This item is in great demand
  
  For Samni village alone, we would need another 400 sets.
  • Umar Akbar (Abdalian) has distributed 700 tents in addition to the ones we distributed to the northern villages.
  
  • We are sharing this information with the Pakistan Army units so that there is no duplication of efforts.
  
  • One team from Lahore headed by a young person Bilal (known to Sajid Minhas, 625) visited our camp yesterday with a truck load of medicines and other supplies. These were given over to our team for distribution.
  
  • Four of our team members left the camp yesterday as their vacation from their employers expired. We salute them for the services they have provided over the past week or more with full dedication. They are
  o Capt. Altaf Rehman, kit no. 8871/Iqbal
  o Dr. Asad Jiskani, kit no. 9096/Qasim
  o Dr. Khalid (from Karachi)
  o Dr. Mukhtiar (from Karachi)
  
  • Arif Masud, kit no. 70111/Iqbal returned to the camp today after taking a break of 2 days when he came back to Rawalpindi to be with his family. He has gone back for another week, and will then take a break again for 2-3 days. Arif is a natural leader and has been a great asset at the camp. He will continue to be the head of operations there.
  
  • Ms. Nayyer Ahmed, sister of Saleh Ahmed (7437/Jinnah) volunteered to assist at the camp, and she also moved to Rerah today. It will be a great asset to have another lady volunteer to work with the women affectees.
  
  • Five more medical team members arrived from Karachi today evening, and have been dispatched to the site. They are:
  o Moed Ahmed Langah, kit no. 75116/Jinnah
  o Arif Khan Afridi
  o Dr. Kazi Zeeshan from Civil Hospital Karachi
  o Dr. Asad from Civil Hospital Karachi
  o Dr. Fahad Khan from Civil Hospital Karachi
  
  • A team of 2 Abdalian doctors led by Dr. Faisal (of Hasan Medical Centre) plus the Secretary General of the Abdalian Association Capt. Nayyer Islam left for the camp tonight. Dr. Faisal had earlier on sent a truck load of medicines as a donation.
  
  • The team of volunteers from Kohat sent by Air Commodore Nayyer Khawja (Abdalian) is also being replaced tomorrow. Around 12 new volunteers from Kohat departed on our trucks today. The present Kohati volunteers who have been there for the past nearly a week will return tomorrow.
  
  • One truck load of 100 tents plus other supplies left Islamabad today for the site. We have another 400 tents on order from Faisalabad (the supplier is much slower in delivering as compared to his promises), plus the 150 tents pledged to us by Discover Islam, Bahrain. These tents from Discover Islam should be delivered to us tomorrow hopefully alongwith 450 razai's.
  
  • We have received a number of proposals from different companies worldwide saying that they can provide the best solution for reconstruction using fast assembly techniques for prefab buildings. We are evaluating all the options before taking on a definite course of action with regards to what role we should be playing for the future rehabilitation work.
  
  • The stream of patients at the field hospital continues with full force.
  
  • Dr. Mrs. Aamir, the only female doctor at our camp will be leaving tomorrow
  after having spent over 10 days and serving the injured and sick women and children. With her departure, we will be left without a female medical practitioner. We need a replacement for her and are looking around for another volunteer lady doctor.
  
  • Our website www.pakistan-earthquake.org that caters to the efforts of Petarians/Abdalians is not up. The domain name was acquired by Imran Latif, 84152/Liaquat. We are working on improving its get up and uploading many more photographs of our camp and the relief efforts. Atif Zia, 94111 is working on developing a new design.
  
  • Wasif Malik, 7402/Liaquat has also done a great job with putting up the website www.petarians.com. A complete section at this website has been devoted to our relief efforts. Great job.
  
  • Our fund raising efforts are picking up further. In addition to the truck loads of supplies we received in kind, we now have received cash or commitments of Rs. 77 lacs to date.
  
  • The Noor Foundation route for transmission of funds from USA has now been tested and is working. We have received the first amount of money transmitted through this channel.
  
  
  With Best Wishes,
  Kazi Zulkader Siddiqui, 671/Latif