People of Pakistan in Dire Need of our Help

The largest natural disaster of the 21st century has devastated the Indus River Valley of Pakistan and it is not up on our radar.

Since late July of this year, monsoon rains have flooded the most populated sections of Pakistan, the Indus River and its tributaries. From the Khyber in north, through the Punjab to Sindh in the south, 14 million people have been displaced. The fourteen million men, women and children displaced are more than the total of those displaced by the 2004 Indian Tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquakes and the 2010 Haitian earthquakes combined! This slow-moving holocaust has resulted in almost 3,000 deaths and created many potential health problems according to the World Health Organization.

W.H.O. has predicted that up to 1.5 million cases of diarrheal diseases (cholera, dysentery, etc.) hepatitis, types A and E and a resurgence of the wild polio virus. Water supplies are contaminated and stagnant pools breed malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Over the past decade Rotary International, through their districts and local clubs, has led an international vaccination effort to stamp out polio and the success is a 98 percent reduction in cases worldwide. Help is needed now, the world’s health and support organizations have had their resources drained The District Governor, Shehzad Ahmed, of Pakistan’s Rotary District 3272, writes of needs for funds to supply: shelter, safe drinking water, food, medicines etc. Rotary District 7780, of Maine and New Hampshire, has set up a link to District 3272 to wire relief funds directly from the U.S. to Pakistan. The Rotary Club of Bethel has voted to donate $1,000 to this effort and is asking those in the Bethel area, who can, to join them supporting the relief needed in the flood-ravaged valleys of the Indus River.

To support our efforts, write your check, for whatever sum, to “The Rotary Club of Bethel Foundation” and earmark it for Pakistan. Send your check to the Rotary Club of Bethel, P.O. Box 471, Bethel, Me 04217. We will send your donation to District 7780, who will bundle it with the donations of others and wire them to District 3272 in Pakistan.

I have identified all the “middlemen” in this direct process. Be assured that we at Rotary are undertaking this effort to be true, faithful, friendly and beneficial to those we serve and that your donations will have maximum impact.

Larry Engdahl

Rotary Club of Bethel