Y Care International launches Asia Earthquake Emergency Appeal

10 October 2005

Y Care International has launched an emergency appeal following massive devastation caused by the earthquake that hit parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan on Saturday morning, 100 kilometres (62 miles) northeast of Islamabad.

The earthquake – at 7.6 on the Richter scale thought to be the strongest in the region in a century – razed entire villages and towns to the ground. It is thought that at least 20,000 people have been killed in Pakistan alone, and tens of thousands are without shelter.

Donations to Y Care International’s emergency appeal will enable ACT International, the global alliance of which the charity is a partner, to ensure that aid is delivered to those in need.

ACT members are already responding in Pakistan by assisting 1,600 families in North West Frontier Province and Azad Kashmir. Emergency food packages (including wheat flour, rice, pulses and cooking oil) and shelter kits are being distributed in the most affected areas of the provinces.

Y Care International’s partners in the emergency are setting up medical camps in affected areas of Pakistan to assist approximately 100,000 people. They are also assessing needs in Afghanistan from their offices in Kabul and Jalalabad.

ACT’s members are working closely with international and local organisations and authorities to organise relief efforts which will address immediate needs, and determine what longer-term response may be needed.