EARTHQUAKE AFFECTED AREAS OF PAKISTAN by Dr Stephen Platt and Emily So

19 July 2006

The funding for this field trip was provided by the EPSRC. Dr Stephen Platt is Chairman of Cambridge Architectural Research Ltd and Emily So is a doctoral student at the Martin Centre, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge.

Muzaffarabad
The main street through the town is bounded by a vertical wall of iver boulders which by some miracle hasn’t collapsed. Some tents are still in evidence, but everywhere there is a huge amount of rebuilding. Commerce is thriving, teeming humanity throng the streets, bumping and jostling into us as we squeeze past, trying to avoid by mown down by taxis and trucks. Tractors crawl along in the heavy traffic hauling heavy duty trailers full of grey sand dug from the bed of the river Jeelum. People making money. Rich and poor making their way in different ways.
Mubashar Lone, our contact from Burnley for Kashmir, takes us to a hotel to meet his friend, a Kashmiri surgeon who also works for KCT, the Kashmir Charitable Trust. The hotel is huge with a wide terrace overlooking the river. There are signs of cracking in the walls that have been patched and inside there is a major repair and refit programme going ahead. Chella Bandi is a suburb of Muzaffarabad about a mile from the town centre. We are shown signs of damage from the road side and the interviewers are dispatched in pairs along different side streets. Most of the houses are damaged and some have collapsed entirely. Many are still living in tents. Those that own their houses and land are camped in the cleared ruins of their homes. Those from the landslide area which completely wiped out their community are in small tented camps.
We are being shepherded around by a couple of young coordinators from KCT who have been working here. We are introduced to a young man in his late twenties called Rajah Kalim who invites us to see his home. His was the richest and most influential family in the community.

Kitty Ussher MP: Will the Minister join me in congratulating British Kashmiris in my constituency who, following the earthquake, operated under the banner of “Burnley for Kashmir” and raised enough cash to build 10 permanent shelters around Khoria Channa and a van to help the relief effort in Muzaffarabad? What estimates has his Department made of the total value of private donations to help earthquake victims in Kashmir?

Mr. Thomas MP : I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s constituents for their fund-raising efforts to help the victims of the earthquake. I know that constituents in other areas, including some from my own constituency, have also put considerable effort into fund raising. I also pay tribute to those constituents’ continuing advocacy for the victims of the earthquake; doing more for them and not walking away. We need to recognise that the reconstruction effort will take a long time—not just the 12 months to date, but perhaps as long as three to five years. We are determined to stay the course and we are continuing to monitor plans for the winter period to ensure that people—those still living in tents as well as those in transitional shelters—have the support that they need.

Link to House of Commons UK

Employees of Kashmir Charitable Trust distributing relief goods for the earth quake affected area of Kashmir. The Van is donated by Burley For Kashmir (UK)

Women :

BURLEY FOR KASHMIR is a organization of Kashmiri community in UK which donated sewing machines for women of  affected area. Kashmir charitable trust receives this donation and delivered them to deserving women. Naila Perveen is one of them. read more....