Punjab and Pakistan Floods - Appeal by Ravinder Singh, Khalsa Aid

Punjab and Pakistan Floods
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Pakistan
Recent floods in Pakistan have left 20 million people homeless. Many are facing a slow and painful death due to lack of clean water and food. UN General Secretary remarked on the floods:

"I will never forget the destruction and suffering I have witnessed today. In the past, I have witnessed many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like this."

Khalsa Aid has of last week launched a huge project in Pakistan, to reach the most hard hit and hard to reach areas. While many Aid Organisations are struggling to deliver aid, local and long serving Khalsa Aid volunteer Tahir Mahmood in Islamabad is already providing aid to victims of the flood in the Mansera area (North West Frontier). Tahir was instrumental in 2009 in Khalsa Aid efforts to assist Sikh and Hindu refugees displaced in the Swat Valley conflict, as well as co-coordinating KA efforts in the Pakistan Earthquake 2005 project.


Punjab
Breaches along the embankment of the Ghaggar river flooded hundreds of villages in Punjab. Over 270 thousand acres alone have been damaged in districts of Patiala, Sangrur, Mohali, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Moga and Mansa.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/khalsa-aid/31925-punjab-pakistan-floods-appeal-ravinder-singh.html

Ravinder Singh, Khalsa Aid CEO and one of our most experienced volunteers has been in Punjab since the end of July. Working with local farmers unions, he has been travelling village to village in the Mansa area to assess the damage to identify those who need help most.

Ravinder Singh reports from Punjab "it is very distressing to see how much the Punjabi farmers are suffering from the effects of the floods. It is worsened by the fact that although all international media is concentrating on Pakistan no one has considered the fate of these victims of the same floods. Furthermore, whilst the Pakistan government has made international pleas for support, the Punjab State government has made no such effort and is in effect devaluing the extent of the suffering of the Punjabi Farmers condemning them to struggle alone. We are working in Mansa, as there are no other aid agencies here, and these villagers have the highest rate of farmer suicides in Punjab."
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=31925

More details will follow but Khalsa Aid plan to provide families with existing debt, and less than acres of land, along with emergency support, with the seeds of next years crop and fertiliser.

In 2008 floods hit Punjab, Bihar and neighbouring areas. Dozens of International Aid Agencies reached Bihar, yet Punjab was forgotten. Khalsa Aid reached Punjab then and is there now again. We urge all Sangat to remember the Punjabis in their time of need.



http://khalsaaid.org/aug10_press_release.html


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This is a tragedy of biblical proportions, unspeakably devestating to the farmers of both East Punjab and West Punjab. I think the reason for the lack of response is the timing. Earthquakes, tsunamis, fires and now floods. All of this on top of the usual mad-made atrocities of war and torture and beheadings and the like.

Those who have money to give have already given more than they can actually afford. Those of us who are activist types like myself are sort of disastered out, I think. We need to take a deep breath, pull up our consciousness and treat this as if it were a single disaster, not just another bead on a necklace of horrors. I am not pointing fingers at others. I have not written about this in The Road To Khalistan; I will rectify this today. I will suggest donations to Khalsa Aid, an organisation I know does a world of good.