UPDATED: Pakistani Flood Victims: Ongoing Updates & Ways to Help

From 'All Things Pakistan' see more tips and encouragement on helping the Flood Victims - GO here

GALLERY here

An appeal which appeals to the heart, mind, and soulhere

People affected by flooding received relief supplies in Nowshera, northwest Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 6. Stormy weather grounded helicopters carrying emergency supplies to Pakistan's flood-ravaged northwest Friday as the worst monsoon rains in decades brought more destruction to a nation already reeling from Islamist violence.
Photo Credit to Mohammad Sajjad/AP Prayers that no group of Aid distributors will use human need to manipulate. See Moving, Sad photo & news article AP/CSM here




self-explanatary photos, found here

Along with updating and specific information on how to help. Do keep watching this site Sapphirical.wordpress.com and GET OUT THE WORD.

The blogger at Sapphirical is a Barrister at Law and has been interviewed by Pakistani Spectator. The interview was published here

Watch here too as more items will be ongoing...

Ways to Help Pakistanis in Flood Area from a Pakistani

Credit to beenasarwar.wordpress.com

Pakistan Flood from Global Voices

I found a posting which may offer the best way to collect and send contributions to help the dear stranded people in this terrible flooding:

To see the URLS live and more information plz GO here

Pakistan floods: Links to send donations, relief goods
Posted on August 2, 2010 by beenasarwar on "Journeys to Democracy" Blogsite:
who gives credit to an intern of hers for the title: (Thanks for the blog name ‘Journeys to Democracy‘ to the bright, dedicated Naveed Malik, KSG ’08, who was one of my interns at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, in 2006-07)

Following is list of donation links, relief resources, organizations and individuals working to support flood victims of Pakistan, compiled from a facebook note Do you want to do your part in helping the Pakistani people displaced because of the recent flash flooding? Here is How ! Some details below:

Besides sending cash through the organizations listed below, you can support by providing following commodities (please do not donate old/expired stuff. Make sure edible items are hygienic and properly packed):

* Clothing: Clothes of various sizes, Bedding, Shoes
* Utensils: Jerricans (large plastic cans that hold 20 liters of water or other liquids), Crockery, Buckets
* Toiletries: Tissues, Soaps, Dettol (antibacterial cleaners), Towels
* Food: Rice, Sugar, Flour (Atta), Onions, Potatoes, Cooking oil, Tea, Milk (tetra packs or powder), Safe drinking water, Cooked Food

Medicines:
1. Water purification tablets.
2. Life saving drugs.
3. Vaccines for malaria, cholera, typhoid, influenza.
4. Pain killers including strong ones like morphine derivatives, tremadol, pethadine, kinz .
5. Antibiotics e.g. tetnus, amoxil, gentamycin.
6. IV cannulas
7. IV Drip sets
8. IV drips: normal saline, ringerlactate
9. Local anesthetics (injections)
10. Cotton bandages, cotton.
11. Surgical instruments: e.g needle holders, forceps, tweezers.
12. Suturing materials, Skin staples.

In Pakistan:

* Edhi Foundation: Donate here

* Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation
Title of Account: Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation
Account #: 0030445261000455
Name of Bank: MCB Bank (1028), Super Market, Islamabad-Pakistan
Swift Code: MUCBPKKAMCC
Tax Exemption: 6043/ATD/2008-09

* SUNGI: Donate here

* Pakistan Red Crescent Society (offices in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Muzaffarabad.

* Pakistani Youth (facebook group)

* Rescue & Relief Work ( Flood Survival) An independent group of students (facebook group)

* The Volunteers/ Voice of the Civil Society: VOTCS – a registered (No. DSW 3369-K) welfare organization in Pakistan, operating as a Non-Profit, Public Charity in the North America, Inc. – 501(C)(3) Organization(Tax Exempted). Sending provisions to affectees with the help of Pakistan Army. For more info call: Hadia khan @ +92-3018245999 Sadia Haroon @ +92-3218251122 Irum Farooque @ +92-3002332142. (For donations: HABIB BANK LIMITED ACCOUNT NO: 1549-79001393-03)

* RONAQ-E-QAINAAT – Young doctors are in the process of arranging a series of free medical camps in the flood affected areas. First Camp is at Nowshera. Please Contact Ms. Alina Akhyar at alinaakhyar@yahoo.com, to email you the Trust’s past activities, bank account details and other queries. They have reportedly done some pretty impressive work. (Account number: 00400101065364, account title: Khadija Nadeem; Askari Bank Chaklala Scheme 3 branch Rawalpindi). Khadija is the founding member, handling all donations.

International Charity Organizations:

* UNHCR: Donate here. You can also mail your donations to UNHCR:
* UNHCR - UNHCR Canada
* UNICEF USA- Donate here
* United Nation’s World Food Programme: Donations are tax deductible for number of countries. Donate here
* Plan International ( Pakistan specific) donate here
* International Medical Corps
* IRC (The International Rescue Committee): donate here: http://www.theirc.org/news/irc-team-responds-devastating-floods-pakistan
* Save the Children

Please share this Note. This is also a way of helping.

To see the URLS live and more information plz GO here

Prominent Journal JAMA on CIA Physicians: Role in 'Enhanced Interrogation' and Torture

JAMA Extract - GO here

Vol. 304 No. 5, August 4, 2010 JAMA is about Violence and Human Rights and includes an article entitled:

"Roles of CIA Physicians in Enhanced Interrogation and Torture of Detainees"

Leonard S. Rubenstein, JD; BG (ret) Stephen N. Xenakis, MD

JAMA. 2010;304(5):569-570. doi:10.1001/jama.2010.1057

For FULL text find a Doctor with JAMA password...

Since this article does not have an abstract, here are the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Secrecy has restricted scrutiny of the role of physicians and other medical personnel in the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA’s) "enhanced" interrogation program, begun in 2002. The program, also labeled "physical and psychological pressure," was designed to "psychologically ‘dislocate’ the detainee, maximize his feelings of vulnerability and helplessness, and reduce or eliminate his will to resist" efforts to obtain intelligence.1-3(appendix F) In 2009, the Obama Administration released guidelines on enhanced interrogation written in 2003 and 2004by the CIA Office of Medical Services (OMS).1-3(appendix F) The OMS guidelines, even in redacted form, and opinions from the US Department of Justice's (DOJ’s) Office of Legal Counsel show that CIA physicians, psychologists, and other health care personnel had important roles in enhanced interrogation.

Enhanced interrogation methods were applied in escalating fashion. Interrogators typically began by removing the detainee's clothes, limiting food, and depriving him of . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliations: Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland (Mr Rubenstein); and Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland (Dr Xenakis).

Short COMMENTATY and alernative access to FULL TEXT here

Responding to Fear with Peace

Young Future Peace Facilitators from various faiths during program led by World Council of Churches.

The goal has been to help bring about understanding by pulling youth from various faiths together for a comfortable while deep look at one another's beliefs and common ground. They are also encouraged to be leaders in modeling the same in their home towns.

There are a growing number of peace advocates today. Often we don't hear about them because the media looks for the more sensational - often the more visible - like on CNN and FACEBOOK. Recently the National Association of Evangelicals NAE responded clearly to "insane crusaders" who want others to join them in burning the Koran. Although I may differ with the NAE on some issues, they certainly are seeking "No More Crusades" in this one instance at least. My Kudos!

Here's the statement of the NAE here

Names continually deceive since the "instigator" of the destruction of Holy Books is a leader from a group called "DOVE" who is using his church and FACEBOOK as a springboard to urge people to burn the Koran. This has been reported as very upsetting indeed among many who honor the Koran. CNN also may be part of the problem by their less than well-rounded reporting of the small sect who stand supporting these instigations toward violent acts. What a ghastly and ridiculous and violence-breeding response to all the fear various leaders have used (via FACEBOOK and infinite other means) to whip up war efforts abroad and violence closer to home.

Let's get more innovative and LIFE-giving (including CONstructive not DEstructive)-- can't we all? For a great example, look at this lovely comment under the following item:

here

Comment:

"A disused Baptist church in my locality was purchased by Muslims. When the latter were tidying up prior to starting building work they found some damaged and badly soiled Bibles in the attic. When the Baptists were contacted they said they didn't want the Bibles, so the Muslims cleaned the Bibles very carefully and then wrapped them in white cloth before burying them in the church grounds. 'These are Holy books' my Muslim friend told me.I don't think the Florida church can really be a Christian church if they are going to burn Q'rans - just another US hate group. We have them in the UK too. Robert (Wales, UK)"

Perhaps we might all look for such opportunity to DO and REPORT these beautiful ACTUAL examples of respect for one another's beliefs and traditions?

Prayer as Private , Personal, Universal Work

This painting is designated "Barns2" (see url below)

- Yet I didn't see barns... I immediately think of flooded fields, homes and people and those who've lost all of these. Maybe that's part of the work of prayer to help us see our own environment become the universal or another's particular come close to home?


Just a little on my understanding of prayer over the years. (With more aspects coming...)

This is from a group devoted for life to prayer with a most universal understanding. I am deliberately leaving out the source to emphasize the wide application. These are not my own words except for just a few - yet get close to part of what I understand about this great resource for touching the invisible.

'If we take one kind of prayer in the narrowest sense, it means facing God alone in privacy. "When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret". Obviously, this kind of prayer is incompatible with ordinary work or with being with others even when they are praying.

Everything and everybody else is excluded from this prayer. In fact, this kind of prayer is a completely personal and private exercise. Probably no one knows what we are up to except God. "Your Father who sees in secret will repay you," Yes, but you don't do this kind of praying in order to get repaid. If you do, the whole thing collapses, for prayer for a reward is really a work...(without faith).

'Nor is this kind of prayer done primarily for one's own mental health. Unlike most modem techniques of meditation, you don't pray in order to achieve peace of mind or to gain new calm or to acquire inner coherence. As desirable as those goals may be, they are not this sort of deep, private) prayer. Prayer turns outward to Another (the OTHER - before coming back again inward on the self. As in human love and friendship, prayer is relationship; if it is done for an ulterior motive, the other person becomes secondary and the whole enterprise is vitiated...

'Yet in another sense, prayer is work, hard work! Like work, private prayer takes premium time and energy. To repeat the modem term, it takes quality time. If we try to short-change our prayer by giving it only the dregs of our time and energy, we will find that we ourselves are the losers. Why does prayer take so much energy? Partly because it requires concentration, and that does not come easy for us. We find it much easier to allow ourselves to be engaged by the random physical stimuli that surround us; but prayer must focus on the transcendent God who is beyond all the sense objects that make up our environment.

'But there is another reason why prayer is hard work. It is difficult because it gradually reveals to us our true selves; and the truth hurts! In fact, it is quite possible to define prayer as the discovery of the true self amid the debris of the false self or selves.

'The assumption here is that it is an ordinary occupation of human beings to fabricate a false ego-self that we present to others and to ourselves instead of the real self... to find our way out of this hall of mirrors is a mighty labor (requiring)..an openness on our part to let Light speak to our inmost selves.

'Of course, everything we read has the potential to change our lives, but with praying via the Holy Scriptures we deliberately put aside our usual insulation and defense to let God speak to our heart.

'The mere fact that some set aside two or three hours a day for this activity should tell us that it is serious business. When we open ourselves up to God, what can be harder and more rewarding?"

Soon after posting this, I noticed this sign: "Truth will set you free but at first it will make you angry"...that too is the hard work part of prayer...to allow self to feel...yet to navigate through these various emotions yet not alone.

And then there are so many rewards for this hard work they can't be named and the "flow" does come from time to time as little smiles that our highest intentions are being heard and helped along...

=========

Next: "We are all artists when we pray"

Credit for this (coming) title and the painting above from here

Pakistan: Doctors Without Borders - MSF - Aiding Flood Victims, Bolstering Teams on the Ground

Pakistan: Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
Aiding Flood Victims, Bolstering Teams on the Ground
August 3, 2010

FIND out More here

Pakistan 2010 © MSF

MSF teams distributing relief kits in Baluchistan to people displaced by the floods.

Officials are now saying more than 3 million people have been directly affected and more than 1,400 killed by the devastating floods in northwestern Pakistan’s Baluchistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Some areas are becoming more accessible due to the water receding. More rains are expected in the coming days, however, which could cause renewed flooding and create problems in areas that have up until now been unaffected.

At present, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is looking to expand its provision of clean water and improve hygienic conditions among the displaced in order to prevent the spread of acute respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, and skin infections. In addition to supporting basic health units in Mandrakhel, Wadpaga, and Gulbela in the Peshawar district, and the Paddi Hospital in the Nowshera district, MSF is working on setting up mobile clinics to provide primary health care and distribute non-food items. Thus far, MSF has distributed a total of 1,000 non-food item kits in Bhaktirabad and Fadfedar in Baluchistan province. More will be distributed in the coming days.

Other priorities include providing access to care for people with chronic diseases, referral to secondary-level care for complicated cases, and drug donations to hospitals. Assessments in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat, Dir and Peshawar districts, as well as in several places in Baluchistan, are ongoing. MSF teams are looking to move into the badly-affected North Swat region, but can’t cross a nearby river at the moment because its bridges have collapsed and other infrastructure has been damaged. The military is working on building a bridge to enable access to North Swat.

Teams are closely monitoring the situation concerning cholera outbreaks and are on standby to receive cholera cases in treatment centers in Dir, Swat and Charsadda districts. There is already one confirmed case of cholera in Swat.

A plan to use helicopters to further assess needs has been delayed but should be possible in the coming days. Meanwhile, 13 international staff are on their way to Pakistan today to reinforce the teams on the ground. A cargo plane will depart for the country at the end of the week carrying 50 tons of water and sanitation material, logistics material and cholera kits.

PAKISTAN: How to HELP & Updates

Photo credit to IFRC.org

HERE'S ONE GOOD WAY TO HELP VICTIMS OF FLOODING: Donate to International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - When you go here you are asked which region of the world you'd like to help. CLICK here International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for reports and a way to give secure donation.

Let's discuss OTHER WAYS we in the International Blogosphere might help support these poorest of the poor swept into one tragedy after the other through no fault of their own. (And let's ask Pakistanis how we might help best now and long-range.)


Photo Internet Cache

August 1, 2010

See Channel News Asia dot com here Cholera of some concern.

Residents may still be waiting for evacuation by army soldiers in Nowshera, in northwest Pakistan yesterday evening. Heavy monsoon rains have triggered the worst floods in decades

Pakistan flood toll tops 1,100, 1.5 million affected, flash floods and landslides in northwest province of Khyber, Pakhtunkhwa. Cholera may still be of concern and at least another 50 or so have died in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, officials said. 01 August 2010 1754 hrs

Thousands of homes and vast swathes of farmland have been destroyed in a region of Pakistan reeling from years of extremist bloodshed - partly due to Taliban extremist and US drones.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told AFP:
"We are receiving information about the loss of life and property caused by the floods all over the province," he said, adding that he feared the death toll could rise.

From News Reports at Channel News Asia (URL above under photo):

A senior official at the provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) confirmed the toll.

Hussain said more than 3,700 homes had been swept away in the floods, and the number of people made homeless was rising.

Hundreds of survivors sought shelter in schools in Peshawar, the main city in northwest Pakistan, and in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, after escaping the floods with children on their backs.

The US government is rushing helicopters, boats, bridges, water units and other supplies to Pakistan as part of an 10-million-dollar aid pledge.

"The Pakistani people are friends and partners, and the United States is standing with them as the tragic human toll mounts from flooding in northwest Pakistan," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement.

China, which has also been hit by severe flooding, announced a 10 million yuan (1.5 million dollar) donation, according to the official Xinhua news agency, which cited a government website.

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) said it had airlifted more than 500 stranded people, including six foreigners, as part of relief operations and was carrying out reconnaissance missions to assess the damage to infrastructure.

Floods also ravaged parts of Afghanistan, killing at least 65 people and affecting more than 1,000 families, officials said.

Pakistani television footage and photographs taken from helicopters showed people clinging to the walls and rooftops of damaged houses as water rushed through villages.

Muqaddir Khan, 25, who fled the floods with nine relatives, told AFP in Peshawar that he had lost everything.

"I laboured hard in Saudi Arabia for three years and set up a small shop which was swept away by flooding in minutes," Khan said.

Pakistan's weather bureau said the northwest had been hit by an "unprecedented" 312 millimetres (12 inches) of rain in the space of 36 hours.

More than 300 people affected by the floods rallied in Peshawar on Sunday, chanting slogans criticising the provincial government for not providing them with adequate shelter.

"I had built a two-room house on the outskirts of Peshawar with my hard-earned money but I lost it in the floods," said 53-year-old labourer Ejaz Khan, who joined the rally.

"The government is not helping us... the school building where I sheltered is packed with people, with no adequate arrangement for food and medicine," Khan told AFP.

Waseyullah, 33, said his two brothers had worked as labourers in Saudi Arabia for the money to build a small furniture factory which he lost in the floods.

"I expect the provincial government to help me financially to rebuild this factory," he added.

Information Minister Hussain said rescue teams were trying to reach 1,500 tourists stranded in Swat district, which was the scene of a major anti-Taliban offensive last year.

"We are also getting confirmation of reports about an outbreak of cholera in some areas of Swat," he said.

The army said it had sent boats and helicopters to rescue stranded people and its engineers were trying to open more roads and divert swollen rivers.

In Pakistani Kashmir, officials said army helicopters had been urgently requested in the worst-hit Neelam valley.

"It has been cut off from the rest of Kashmir and we still don't know how many people are killed, injured and displaced there," State Disaster Management Authority chief Farooq Niaz said.

However, authorities said they had repaired a damaged portion of the Islamabad-Peshawar motorway to restore the northwest region's road links with the rest of Pakistan.

The flooding capped a week of tragedy for Pakistan after an airliner crashed into hills near Islamabad on Wednesday, killing all 152 people on board. - AFP/ms

Other Related News

Irish Times dot com here

Evidently the weather is improving somewhat in NW Pakistan flood region‎ (report 5 hours ago) - Dawn News Sunday reported the death toll is expected to rise as the flood waters recede and reveal more of the damage.

BLACK BOX FOUND
Photo Internet Cache

Aljazeera dot net here