Flood relief to Pakistan

Millions of people have lost their homes and all of their possessions in flooding in north-west Pakistan. The number of people reported as being directly affected has reached 17.2 million.

For information on how to contribute to the continuing relief effort in Pakistan, please contact your SD National organization or consider giving through one of the following reputable international organizations listed below, or where relevant, their branch in your country:

• ActionAid: http://www.actionaid.org/
• CARE: http://www.care.org/
• Caritas: http://www.caritas.org/
• International Committee of the Red Cross: http://www.icrc.org/eng
• Merlin: http://www.merlin.org.uk/
• Oxfam: http://www.oxfam.org/
• Plan International: http://plan-international.org/
• Red Crescent: http://wwhttp://www.ifrc.org/w.ifrc.org/
• Save the Children: http://www.savethechildren.org/
• UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/
• UNHCR: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
  

SDIA has contact with a local organization in Pakistan that is carrying out relief work, Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) http://srsp.org.pk/zeenix/ . This is a more direct way to get funds to the Pakistan relief effort, and although we cannot wholly guarantee the good use of funds sent to this organization, due to a lack of sufficient information about it, any funds earmarked for the Pakistan relief effort will be sent to this NGO.

To participate in a campaign to persuade international institutions to cancel Pakistan’s national debt, please visit Avaaz. According to Avaaz: “ As Pakistan struggles to rescue families from flood waters and fend off disease and starvation before winter sets in, it is scrambling to pay out a shocking 30% of its annual budget revenues to foreign creditors on debt incurred by previous dictatorships. If Pakistan is obliged to make these debt payments, rescue efforts for tens of millions of people whose lives have been devastated could be crippled. Earlier this year, we persuaded creditor governments to drop Haiti's debt after it was devastated by an earthquake—and now we could do the same for Pakistan.” Find out more here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/pakistan_cancel_the_debt/?cl=724345886&v=7058.