Photo Credit: journeyfish.com If you were at the last meeting, you will remember that we decided our first action this year will take the form of a fundraiser to aid victims of the floods in Pakistan. The human rights aspect of the Pakistani crisis is underscored in these articles from the NY Times and the BBC:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/world/asia/24pstan.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10981230
"Nearly five million people have been displaced from the worst flooding ever recorded in Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands are being housed in orderly tented camps set up in army compounds, schools and other public buildings, but thousands more are living on roadsides and canal embankments, spreading out mats under the trees or making shade over the simple rope beds they brought with them.
The town of Sukkur is overflowing with displaced people. On the edge of the town, a group of 15 families with scores of children are camped along the Dadu Canal. Their mood is edgy, and they race in a horde after any vehicle that slows in the hope that it bears food or assistance. One woman showed her fractured arm, the result of a tussle for food.
“People are looting,” said Shad Mohammad, 28, a shopkeeper and father of five, who came here after his town, Ghospur, was flooded 15 days ago. “People run after trucks snatching things. People come, sometimes the government comes, or charities with food. Sometimes you get something, sometimes not.” "
