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HelpAge International Helps Survivors of the South Asia Earthquake
HelpAge International
Pakistan/India
October 11, 2005
A Kashmiri man stands outside his destroyed home in Karnah, near the LOC (Line Of Control) in Indian-administered Kashmir October 10, 2005. Rescuers searched frantically in the rubble of flattened towns and villages on Sunday for survivors of a devastating earthquake that killed more than 20,000 people in northern Pakistan and India. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan
At least 23,000 people have been killed in the massive earthquake that struck close to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir on the morning of Saturday 8 October. Tremors were felt as far afield as Kabul and Delhi, but the main affected areas have been Kashmir and Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province.
HelpAge International, with partners Help Age India and Help the Aged, sent a mobile medical unit to the Indian city of Uri in Kashmir soon after the earthquake devastated the town, to help the injured.
Two other mobile medical units from Punjab are arriving in the area today (11 October). These units will provide medical care to survivors in outlying villages about 50 kilometres from the epicentre of the quake.
Older people need food and shelter
HelpAge India has undertaken an immediate assessment of older people in the area. The assessment has shown that older people need food, shelter, sanitation and other essential items.
Help Age India will supply further medicine and blankets, and special high altitude tents to provide protection from the extreme cold that will hit when the weather changes in the next few weeks.
HelpAge International's partner in Pakistan, Pakistan Medico International, is assessing the needs of older people in other affected areas.
Needs of older people often ignored
Research in other emergencies demonstrates that although older people are commonly accepted as being a vulnerable group, humanitarian relief operations often ignore them. Relief systems discriminate against older people and can undermine their capacity to support themselves.
Bill Gray, HelpAge International's Emergency Manager said. "It is essential that older people are treated as a group with special needs in emergency situations. They are usually forgotten when disaster strikes, as we have seen all too frequently in recent disasters such as the tsunami earthquake and the Southern Africa food crisis.
"HelpAge International and its partners are undertaking detailed assessments of the needs of older people in India and Pakistan to provide emergency relief and offer sustainable ways of helping people to rebuild their lives."
How you can help
To donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Asia Quake Appeal, visit the DEC website.
The DEC is an umbrella organisation which launches and co-ordinates the UK's national appeal in response to major disasters overseas. HelpAge International's partner organisation, Help the Aged, is one of its members.
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