Punjab and Pakistan Floods
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Pakistan
Recent floods in Pakistan have left 20 million people homeless. Many are facing a slow and painful death due to lack of clean water and food. UN General Secretary remarked on the floods:
"I will never forget the destruction and suffering I have witnessed today. In the past, I have witnessed many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like this."
Khalsa Aid has of last week launched a huge project in Pakistan, to reach the most hard hit and hard to reach areas. While many Aid Organisations are struggling to deliver aid, local and long serving Khalsa Aid volunteer Tahir Mahmood in Islamabad is already providing aid to victims of the flood in the Mansera area (North West Frontier). Tahir was instrumental in 2009 in Khalsa Aid efforts to assist Sikh and Hindu refugees displaced in the Swat Valley conflict, as well as co-coordinating KA efforts in the Pakistan Earthquake 2005 project.
Punjab
Breaches along the embankment of the Ghaggar river flooded hundreds of villages in Punjab. Over 270 thousand acres alone have been damaged in districts of Patiala, Sangrur, Mohali, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Moga and Mansa.
Ravinder Singh, Khalsa Aid CEO and one of our most experienced volunteers has been in Punjab since the end of July. Working with local farmers unions, he has been travelling village to village in the Mansa area to assess the damage to identify those who need help most.
Ravinder Singh reports from Punjab "it is very distressing to see how much the Punjabi farmers are suffering from the effects of the floods. It is worsened by the fact that although all international media is concentrating on Pakistan no one has considered the fate of these victims of the same floods. Furthermore, whilst the Pakistan government has made international pleas for support, the Punjab State government has made no such effort and is in effect devaluing the extent of the suffering of the Punjabi Farmers condemning them to struggle alone. We are working in Mansa, as there are no other aid agencies here, and these villagers have the highest rate of farmer suicides in Punjab."
More details will follow but Khalsa Aid plan to provide families with existing debt, and less than acres of land, along with emergency support, with the seeds of next years crop and fertiliser.
In 2008 floods hit Punjab, Bihar and neighbouring areas. Dozens of International Aid Agencies reached Bihar, yet Punjab was forgotten. Khalsa Aid reached Punjab then and is there now again. We urge all Sangat to remember the Punjabis in their time of need.
http://khalsaaid.org/aug10_press_release.html
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