Annual report 2005 Malteser International - Ordine di Malta

ON THE SPOT: PAKISTAN
Lost without a home
Race against the winter after the earthquake in Pakistan
(An eye-witness report from October 2005)
Many families are faced with ruin after the earthquake.
The ground is still reddish-brown along
Edgar Road in Muzaffarabad. But in the
improvised refugee camp at the foot of
the Himalayas, Mulin Ameer is looking
anxiously at the white peaks. Winter is
coming. And the 20-year-old suspects
that the disaster of the 8th of October may
yet claim more victims once the snow lies
on the mountains of Kashmir.
“The ground opened and the house
slipped into a massive chasm. My
brother’s entire family was buried alive.
Grandfather and I spent two days rescuing
our family.” This is how Ameer described
the earthquake that destroyed his village.
Now he is staying here in the capital of
Azad Kashmir, together with five hundred
other Pakistanis who have mostly walked
for several days to get here. Many are
injured and have not received medical
treatment until they got here. And many
still have no roof over their heads and
are housed in emergency tents or under
mounted plastic sheets.
Muhamed Rashid, 50, who arrived here
with his wife and children, shows us his
tent. “Four families are only separated
down the middle with a piece of cloth.
There are 15 of us sleeping in this tent.”
Florian Kopp
Aktion Deutschland Hilft:
“Aktion Deutschland Hilft” (Action Campaign
Germany Helps) is a federation of German aid
organisations acting concert to provide quick and
effective help in response to major disasters and
ADH / Stefan Trappe
His wife complains that there is no toilet
and that she always has to wait until
night-time. “It’s unhealthy and all full of
mud” she says, “and it’s the children who
suffer most – especially at night when it
gets cold.”
Mulin Ameer holds his 10-yearold
nephew, Nazeer, in his arms. The
little boy whimpers in pain with every
movement. “He’s been in pain for nine
days”, his uncle says. “But before we can
look after him, we must rescue and bury
the dead.” Descending the mountains in
rainy weather along blocked paths took
more than two days. Now Nazeer can be
examined: his left femur is broken. “We’ll
take him to a Turkish field hospital near
the helicopter landing pad” decides Jon
Freeman from the Malteser International
emergency aid team, out here on an
assessment for further aid projects
together with Holger Sommer from ‘Die
Johanniter’. In the next few days, Jon
and his colleague Marie-Theres Benner,
emergency aid expert from Malteser
International, will climb up to the cut-off
villages around Muzaffarabad, battling
the white peaks.
Christoph Ernesti;
reproducedwith the kind permission
of ‘Aktion Deutschland Hilft’.
Emergency and winter aid even in the
inaccessible mountain villages of the
Himalayas.
Aktion
Deutschland Hilft
Das Bündnis der Hilfsorganisationen
emergencies, such as after the tsunami or the earthquake in Pakistan. In times of need, the initiators
of this federation for action, each an autonomous organisation in its own right, pool their knowledge
and capacities, complementing one another and consolidating resources to provide the most effective
help possible. During the acute phase of major disasters abroad, “Aktion Deutschland Hilft” makes
a public appeal for donations. As well as Malteser International, „Aktion Deutschland Hilft“ includes
the following relief organisations: action medeor, ADRA Germany, Workers’ Samaritan Federation
Germany (ASB), Workers’ Welfare Association (AWO), CARE International Germany, HELP – help to
selfhelp, Johanniter Unfall-Hilfe (JUH), Paritaetischer Wohlfahrtsverband and World Vision Germany.
26 A S I A