The Swat Plea

This post comes with a very special Thanks to Fawwad Afridi who despite of being awfully tired from the trip back to Karachi still managed to fill us in with all the details *hats off to you*. Mission Rescue Pakistan (MRP) is an NGO run by white color individuals from literally every group of the society. We have some exceptionally enthusiastic  youngsters  working along with strategic advice from the elderly. Overall the MRP family represents patriotic individuals from different backgrounds grouping up for one cause. So without further delays here is the insight on MRP’s visit to the camps :

First and foremost How has the MRP family contributed to the displaced
people in Swat?

MRP Swat Relief Camp was set up from May 16 till 19, 2009, at Park Towers opposite to McDonald’s. MRP Team has collected stuff like Medicines, Clothes, Ready to eat food, non-perishable food items, kitchen utensils, water, toys and much more. After collecting all the stuff, it was sorted and packed at MRP ware house which is located in PECHS. The entire MRP Team was their, busy in packing and storing the collected commodities, and cautiously checking medicines and their expires. After the hectic checking process it was dispatched to Naushera, where things were already lined up with NRSP (National Rural Support Program). During the same time Four Team Members of Mission Rescue Pakistan fly to Mardan. Where they have spent two days in survey and identify the most deserving areas. NRSP, played an important role in identifying the key spot areas which are still neglected by the Government & various NGO’s, their MRP Team has tried it’s level best to facilitate them at max.

Having to visit the place personally how would you analyze the
situation on ground? Is the mainstream media doing enough to portray
the complete picture?

The best thing which at least I observed during my visit of NWFP was that Local People were & are very much supporting Pakistan Army and they are ready to do anything to back them up. They firmly believe, that Army is playing an anchor role and they are the only one who can return back their routine lives to them. These are the morale boosting news which we hardly heard on media. Media, has to play a very important role infect media has to act as a very Patriotic and Nationalist Brand to uplift the Nations Morale.

If you were to identify goods urgently required in those areas what
would it be ? If appropriate kindly list it for our readers?

Well, everything is important. From where shall I start? Water, cooler, Crockery, Shirt, Pents, Shalwar Kameez, Shoes, Shorts, Duppatay, Toys, anything that is required in a normal house. And above all this, the most important thing which needs to be highlighted and resolved is following:-

There are approximately 60,000 pregnant ladies, who are in between their 6-8 months, even in the final month (in some cases), they’ll be needing lot of Female Doctors specially gynecologist. We’ll really appreciate if interested doctors can volunteer themselves and serve in this noble cause. Please feel free to contact us for further details.

We are all greatly concerned if the aid is actually reaching the
effected people , and if so are they generally satisfied?

This is the tough question:-

Now you have to understand few things:-

Total Number of IDP’s is approximately        3.2 Million (Unconfirmed sources)

2.5 Million (Govt. Sources)

15% IDP”s out of these 3.2 or 2.5 Million will be staying in the camps set by the government on various locations. Other 85% IDP’s are the main issue, as they are not living in the camps, they have been dispersed in the outskirts of various stations, or moved to other cities/towns/districts and aid is not reaching to them at all.

The other and the most important problem/issue that these IDP’s are facing is off Registration. These IDP’s have left their places is such emergency that most of them haven’t brought their CNIC’s with them, and government has strictly instructed NGO not to entertain anyone who is without CNIC means without Registration.

What more do you think can be and should be done with regards to the
situation at hand?

Aid should reach to everyone, irrespective of the IDP color, cast, race, region, and cnic. 15mins CNIC service should be established and temporary cnics to be issued to idps on urgent basis.

What is MRP’s future strategy on the issue? Are we expecting another
trip to the effected camps?

MRP will be gathering commodities again, and will be distributing them again amongst the idps. Next trip will be arranged with in 30 days time. We are also trying to get some doctors on board with us so we can permenantly set up a Mobile Hospital their which can facilitate the locals. We would really appreciate if anyone can help or sponsor us.

Details of MRP First visit to NWFP, will be uploaded on MRP website soon.

Wishing the MRP family all the best for the future relief projects. Is
there anything that you would like to particularly highlight for those
who want to help, donate and volunteer?. Specially something you feel
isn’t being talked much often ?

All those who are interested in contributing or helping IDP’s, or have anysort of question in mind do call us or write to us on following numbers and addresses:-

Info@missionrescuepakistn.com

Fawad afridi:- +92321-2437256

Naveed Mansoor: +92334-3893330

Talha Rehman:- +92321- 2007664

 Image credits: Getty Images - AsiaPac

So in an effort to raise more awareness to the current IDP issue in Pakistan, we decided to launch www.helpidps.com - a twitter aggregator and a landing page for those looking to help
 out with the current crisis.

We encourage all of you to contribute with whatever you can. If you are a twitter user please remember to tag any IDP related tweet with either #IDP, #SWAT or #helpIDP and our system will aggregate that automatically.

 Also, we want to do something to raise funds quickly, so we are offering 5 banner spots on the following sites for 1 year for free for anyone who donates a sizable amount to any recognized charity organization who is helping out in SWAT relief effort.

You will be able to put your banner on helpIDPs.com and Mazaydar.com for 1 year.

Let us help those in need. Let’s spread the word via all the social networks that we can think of.

Link to original post

Credit: Random musings (Obaid) of Mazaydar.com & http://deensoft.com/

The Venue has been changed from PAF Base faisal ue to security concerns

MRP (www.missionrescuepakistan.com) an NGO is setting up a donation camp opposite Park towers, Saturday and Sunday  that is the 16th and 17th of April. Another Camp will be set up at at Delton’s (main kh-Shaheen) on May 16 & 17th.MRP did a fabulous job in providing relief for the earthquake victims in Baluchistan. The camps will be requiring volunteers as well.I sure do hope that karachiites show the same spirit as they did in the Kashmir Quake’05. Wake up Karachi Swat needs us !

They will be requiring following items

• Tents
• Clothes
• kitchen Items
• Food

The human appeal international is raising pleas of the victims of swat. For all our international audience now you can donate with ease.Specially for people residing in Britain.

URGENT APPEAL

The current crisis in Northern Pakistan is escalating. Currently over 350 000 people have been registered as displaced at refugee camps but as numbers rise a million people are expected to become internally displaced and have nowhere to go.

“The floodgates are opening whenever there`s a curfew lifted and thousands and thousands of people are on the roads”. [Killian Kleinschmidt UNHCR]

These hundreds of thousands of people carrying very few basic belongings have fled their homes with nothing to help them survive. They do not know where they will go or what they will do tomorrow. Pakistan already suffers from severe poverty and there is a greater threat for the loss of lives & increase in extreme poverty due to this refugee crisis.

Human Appeal International responded immediately and £150 000 has been allocated in providing aid such as food blankets clothes and temporary shelters.

We urgently need your support. Please DONATE NOW!

Human Appeal International is working on the ground.

Immediate needs for Refugees:

Family Food Parcel - £25
Emergency kit - £50
Emergency Medicines - £15

To donate please call +44 (0)161 225 0225 or go online on our secure webpage at www.humanappeal.com

Donate as much as possible every penny counts!

Please help Human Appeal International in helping these innocent people forced out of their homes through no fault of their own. Help us provide the basic necessities for survival

Launched an event on cover it live this will help unite all info from twitter or blogs. if you are someone at the scence or in the volunteer camps you can tweet and update us about requirements and other such important info. All those using the hash tag #Swat #idps #Pakistan go on automatically. Please  embed the console on your blog/site/faccebook and help spread the work.