Dear Friends,
We all know that over 20 million people have been badly affected by the current floods. It is time for every one of us to stand up and contribute to the rescure, relief and rehabilitation efforts. You are requested to generously donate for this cause. If you want to donate to Bedari, please send your donations to the following account:
Title of the Account: Bedari
Account Number: 0390860141001237
Bank: MCB Bank
Currency: Pak Rupees
SWIFT Code: MUCBPKKA
or send your cheques in the name of Bedari to the following address:
Bedari, House no 657, Street 75, I-8/3, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Bedari has created a niche for itself in providing support to flood affected people. Bedari volunteers visit various camps in district Nowshera, and talk to women and children in the camps, know their specific problems and try to resolve them. These problems are often being ignored by the camp managers as they are focusing on the issues being faced by the majority. Bedari volunteers have so far visited following camps: Our volunteers have met scores of women and children and found following issues: As our female volunteers had meetings with women and girls, the most important issue shared by them was non-availability of sanitary pads. Bedari has started providing sanitary pads to women in various camps. We are talking to the companies that produce and distribute sanitary pads in Pakistan to make it easier and cheaper to provide sanitary pads. Hopefully, Bedari would be able to distribute large quantities of sanitary pads, or it would be able to encourage other organizations and companies to provide such pads directly to the needy women. For women and children, it is really difficult to go out of the camps to the markets, and purchase medicine prescribed by doctors. Bedari volunteers have started providing this support. Bedari volunteers collect prescriptions from women and children; fetch medicine from the market for women and children who have no adult male. The cost for the medicine is born by Bedari. Sultana Bibi – over 60 years old – is one such woman. She got injured during a scuffle for food as getting food from food distribution points has become a tough job due to rowdiness. She had visited a doctor, who prescribed her some medicine, which were not available in the camp. Bedari has provided her the required medicine, and would stay in touch with her for further treatment of her injury. Many women asked for washed and clean clothes, as they were wearing the same clothes since 28th July – the day when floods forced them out of their homes. Bedari volunteers have provided clothes to 30 persons in the camps in the last week of August 2010. Shireenzadgai, 57, belongs to Aba Khail village which was washed away from the surface of the earth on July 28, 2010. She, along with her grandchildren, is living in Kandar Camp. Her grandchildren were roaming about in the camp naked and bare footed. Bedari volunteers have provided them with clothes and shoes. Shireenzadgai was very happy to see her children wearing new clothes and shoes. She kept thanking Bedari volunteers as long as they remained at the camp. Other items distributed among various families included sugar, tea, milk, gas burners and cylinders, shoes, and toys and biscuits.
What Bedari is doing…!
Sanitary Pads
Medicine
Clothes
Miscellaneous
Floods in Pakistan
More than 1,600 people have been killed by the flood waters that swept away over 400,000 houses throughout the country. Around 5000 villages are inundated and thousands of people are stranded with no hope of relief from the authorities. According to the United Nations the massive floods in Pakistan affected 14 million people eclipsing the devastating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the January 2010 Haiti earthquake.
In Punjab province alone, the floods have resulted in the destruction of 171,010 houses, 1480 villages and the destruction of standing crops of cotton, rice, sugarcane, fodder and different types of grains covering over two million acres. Around 200,000 animals were swept away or killed. Major road links, bridges and embankments along the rivers were broken and water inundated thousands of acres of land.
Lightning, heavy rains and flash floods wreaked havoc in Gilgit-Baltistan, close to the border with China killing 63 people. Here the landslides resulted in the killings of 254 persons, mainly women and children. The third round of heavy rains and floods in Qumara village claimed the lives of 45 people and destroyed 28 houses. At least 45 people lost their lives in rain-related incidents in three villages of Skardu region, while 15 others sustained injuries according to the Deputy Inspector General of Police. Heavy rains and floods destroyed a bridge linking Pakistan with China. The road link between Skardu and the rest of the country has been closed down for traffic.
