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“EID MILAN PARTY”
London, 17
December 2007
Kashmir Relief and Development Foundation (KRDF) UK organised “Eid
Milan Party” in London in order to highlight the Kashmir earthquake
which destroyed the basic infrastructure of Kashmir region on 8th
October 2005. People from varied business and cultural backgrounds
were invited in order to give them the update of the work done by KRDF
and the impact of projects carried out by the foundation on the
survivors.
The
programme started with the recitation of versus from the holy Quraan
followed by the Naat Shareef read by Mohd. Aslam Chugtai. Trustee of
the foundation Mr. Mahmood Hussain, gave a brief introduction of KRDF
to the guests. He started by paying rich tributes to all who lost
their lives and showed solidarity to who survived and are trying to
rebuild their shattered lives.
President of
KRDF in UK Malik Latif, while welcoming the guests in this programme
thanked all of them for their continuous support to KRDF from over the
years. He said KRDF believed in results rather than making pledges to
the people. He invited people to visit the projects run by KRDF and
observe the difference these educational projects are making to the
survivors of earthquake of 8th Oct. 2005.
Zafar Sharif,
Chief Co-ordinator of the KRDF gave a detailed visual presentation of
the destruction caused by the earthquake, how people have managed
since then, what role have NGOs played and what still needs to be
done. He gave a detailed report about the projects of the KRDF.
He said that
the earthquake destroyed almost 1/2 of AJK in few minutes. The scale
of destruction is difficult to explain as villages were completely
wiped off. Villages were also buried under mountain falls. Villages
slid down the hills completely. Many were injured seriously. Roads
were damaged and many areas were cut-off for almost 15 days.
Children got
buried under schools and hostel buildings and the bodies found were
not recognisable.
Thousands of
people were displaced and some still have not been able to find their
loved one.
He said that
on seeing such a large scale devastation KRDF launched its relief and
rescue efforts soon after the earthquake struck. He said that we are
proud of saying that our teams of volunteers reached to the affected
cities on the same day of the earthquake. They set up relief camps in
all major cities of AJK. We sent first supplies of food, water and
blankets on 9th October. In order to save the children from
mental trauma of this tragedy, KRDF launched an educational programme
“Ilm Ki Shama Jalayey Rakho” and established mobile schools in tents.
KRDF also distributed books and other necessary items to the children
donated by the people.
Zafar Sharif
said that the emergency relief work continued from the relief camps 24
hours a day. Our volunteers helped people to save lives as well as
digging out the bodies and arranging the burials. Our volunteers
travelled on foot where no transport could go and carried food and
other supplies on their shoulders. This relief work continued along
with supplies of tents and metal sheets up to end of March 2006. He
also said that KRDF volunteers would went to far flung villages, did
the survey, issued tokens and then went back to distribute. They
reached where no one had reached before.
With the
help of visual presentation he showed to the people that after the
initial phase of the emergency relief work, the reconstruction work
was the most important task. There are many a thousands still without
proper shelter. Schools and colleges are still not there. The promised
shelter and funds are not reaching to the survivors.
Zafar Sharif
said that KRDF continued its activities with whatever resources it had
and most importantly with the help of other NGOs. We identified the
needs and decided that we could only work on health and education.
It was very important to get children back
to school as soon as possible as education plays a vital role in
protection and providing children with a safe environment and giving
parent’s time to rebuild their lives.
Giving the
details of the projects done by KRDF, he said that the first
reconstruction project of KRDF is the Namnotta Primary School, which
is now providing education to 135 students. The result of this school
was 95% this year. The people of Namnotta, which is about 15 km from
Rawalakot city, are very thankful to the residents of Luton and the
management team of Luton Council of Faiths, who sponsored this school.
The second school by KRDF was built in Challa Bandi in Muzaffarabad,
which was the epic centre of the earthquake. He said that this school
is up and running now. He also said that other two schools are under
construction which will be completed till May 2008. He said that KRDF
wants to build a High School in Muzaffarabad for which we need your
help.
The chief Coordinator of KRDF
said that besides building schools, we also established Vocational
Training Centres for women. He said the main aim of these centres is
to make women self-reliant so that they can contribute financially in
their families. He said that so far we have established 9 Vocational
centres in different areas of Azad Kashmir namely
1) Makiala Ghirkot 2) Ravli Barian 3) Dera
4) Birpani 5) Panyali in district Bagh, Kaitheky in Muzaffarabad,
Dawaryaan in Neelum Valley and one in Seena Daman in Jhelum Valley.
He
said that KRDF provides these centres all the necessary items to run
them and also employs a teacher who teaches the women. He said there
are some other similar projects in pipeline for which we need the
continuous support and prayers. He further said that KRDF finished an
educational programme in Bagh in which we took 14 lecturers from
Sheffield and Leeds with the help of KET who taught English and IT
courses for 6 weeks. KRDF and KET want to continue these educational
programmes and send more teams of lecturers.
He said that KRDF is setting up
water supply schemes in most far flung areas of Azad Kashmir. First
project of this kind is about to complete in Banjosa in district
Rawalakot. He said that some other applications of such kind of
projects have been received by KRDF and we are waiting for the donors
to sponsor them.
Zafar Sharif
also said that health centres for children and women and old age are
very much needed in all parts of the affected areas.
Some people
in this function pledged to sponsor most of those water supply
projects.
The
Assistant Commissioner of Muzaffarabad, Masood-ur-Rehamn who is in UK
these on the educational tour attended this function as well. Speaking
on the occasion he explained his personal experience during the
earthquake. He said although he lost lot of his relatives on 8th
October 2005 but by looking at the sufferings of the other people, his
misery and tragedy seems small. He said KRDF has done a great job over
the years by helping the people to rebuild their shattered lives. He
praised the efforts of this foundation and urged the people to keep on
helping the foundation.
The local
Councillors of Newham appreciated the work of KRDF and promised to
help KRDF in future projects. Other local community leaders also
attended which included Cllr. Abdul Karim Sheikh, Cllr Zulfiqar Ali
JP, Cllr Abdul Shakoor, people from London’s business community Mr.
tariq Ahmed, Ch Gulbahar, Haji Mohd Rasid, Haji Moh Ismail Babu, Mohd
Yousuf, Mohd Maroof, Master Khizar Azam, Mohd Farooq, Mohd M Saleem,
Haji Fazal Hussain, M. Yasin, M. Ashraf, Khadim Hussain, M. Salim,
tahir Zaman, Haji Mumtaz, Faisal Nazki, Mahmood Faiz, Mahmood Hussain,
Afzal Mir, Sanowar Hussain and Sohail Sheikh. Women also attended this
function.
Mahmood
Hussain thanked to the NGOs who have worked with KRDF, guests and all
the local people who came to attend this program and also donated to
KRDF.
Sohail
A Sheikh
Secretary Information (KRDF) |
