Helping People
Help Themselves after the Earthquake
By M. Majid Ali, CPA
New York
They say in China,
"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day;
teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime".
The Human Development Foundation (HDF.com) operates
on a similar premise in that emergency aid to communities
is followed up by the establishment of basic infrastructure
and schools that help people sustain themselves
over time.
The ultimate goal is to empower people to change
their destiny and to move them from the receiving
end to the giving end. In the wake of the devastating
South Asian Earthquake centered in Northern Pakistan
the Human Development Foundation is providing emergency
aid to people and embarking on long-term plans to
rebuild the basic life support and educational facilities
of the villages destroyed by the calamity. HDF is
a non-political, non-governmental organization registered
with the IRS as a tax-exempt organization (IRS tax
ID # 36-4184940).
When the earthquake
struck Northern Pakistan people from all over the
globe sprang into action to offer support. The Human
Development Foundation with its long history of
working in the remote areas of Pakistan also joined
the effort. With its infrastructure that spans the
globe from networks mobilizing communities to a
dedicated staff of doctors, teachers and civil engineers
in Pakistan, HDF stood ready to utilize its many
years of experience in helping small villages function
on their own. From the moment the earth stopped
shaking HDF teams were mobilized to assist in the
rescue and relief effort and they have conducted
operations around the clock as well as reached out
to supporters.
Here is a brief chronology of initial HDF operations
after the October 8th earthquake: October 10: A
three-member team visited the Muzzaffarabad area
for needs assessment and provision of relief goods.
October 12: A three-member team including a physician
visited the Bagh area of Kashmir for needs assessment
and provision of relief goods. October 15: It was
decided to set up a relief camp in the village of
Putan Khurd near Muzzaffarabad. The camp would provide
food for 15 days to all households of the village,
300 blankets, soil digging equipment and medical
aid. The team would include a physician, specialized
project managers and support staff. It was noted
that people were eager to get back to their homes
and start rebuilding without waiting for any outside
help. All they needed was a set of tools. HDF distributed
tool kits for this purpose. This is how HDF helps
people help themselves. An effort is also being
made to work in tandem with other relief organizations
so as to forge partnerships and avoid overlap.
The overall base camp for collection of earthquake
donations is in Islamabad. The effort is organized
via a working management, a collection management
and volunteers who sift, sort, pack and ship needed
items to the forward base camps. The major centers
of Lahore, Rahim Yaar Khan, Karachi and Mardan all
have regional base camps collecting clothing, tents,
food water and medicines. International donations
are being collected at the base camp in Islamabad.
Regional bases are bringing in supplies twice a
week via free service offered by Pakistan International
Airlines. Forward base camps are being set up in
target areas where relief goods will be taken from
Islamabad and distributed via local volunteers.
A communications cell is handling all the information
and communication between the teams and headquarters
while a logistics cell is facilitating the movement
of relief goods from airports to the base camps
and distribution sites and obtaining government
customs clearances and hiring transport.
The extent the destruction is so much that the need
of those affected by earthquake will be beyond the
first few days and beyond the supply of food, medicine
and shelter.
HDF has adopted the village "Bugna" on
the road to Muzzafarabad. Bugna is hub of 11 villages.
It is 25 Km away form Kohla, Muzzafarabad road.
The area is 25 Km away from Kohla bridge, about
20 Km away from main market. There are about 300
households in the immediate vicinity and another
800 households scattered around that area. 75% of
the households have been destroyed completely. In
coordination with the army representative, HDF has
taken over the responsibility of the whole village.
We plan to go beyond the immediate need of these
people and help them rebuild their lives and the
communities. We have established a fund for this
purpose and your donation into this fund will help
rebuild their lives.
HDF is not a hand-out organization. It believes
in self-empowerment by giving people the tools to
fend for themselves and live in dignity. Its founding
in 1997 was partly sponsored by the "Association
of Pakistani Physicians of North America".
Many members who contribute so much to American
Healthcare wanted to do something to break the vicious
cycle of illiteracy and resulting poverty at an
international level. During the first five years
the Foundation has taken significant human development
initiatives in all parts of Pakistan. In addition
the Foundation has been able to mobilize people
in all major areas of the United States to establish
supporting networks and to participate in human
development on an international level.
The human development concept followed by HDF is
actually adopted from Dr. Mahbub ul Haq's work "Reflections
on Human Development." Dr Haq was a Cambridge
educated World Bank economist who also served successfully
as Pakistan's Finance Minister. His main legacy
is the development of human development indexes
that measure overall human growth not just increase
in GNP. This model is all encompassing and puts
people, especially women, at the center of development
efforts. The model dictates that the purpose of
development is to maximize human choice not just
enhance income by investing in education, basic
healthcare and means of sustenance. The goals of
development are defined at the start of the projects
and a detailed analysis is done to achieve them
in a sensible way.
HDF's modus operandi is to operate at the local
level in partnership with local people to bring
about positive social change by jointly constructing
hand pumps, roads, small dams and to organize people
at the village level so they can work and achieve
as a unit. Simultaneously an investment is made
in setting up schools for adults and children as
well as basic healthcare. Micro-credit programs
provide small loans and training to individuals
that bring out their latent talents and enable them
to establish small businesses that allow them to
escape the permanent bondage of corrupt village
money-lenders. This program seeks to replicate the
phenomenal success of Grameen Bank of Bangladesh
which has lent millions of dollars to people in
over 40,000 villages allowing them to establish
small businesses and as a result millions have climbed
out of poverty. Grameen Bank's programs have experienced
a loan repayment rate of over 90%. Today HDF has
healthcare projects in Rahim Yar Khan that provide
vaccinations, schools in Mardan, micro-credit lending
programs in Shamsabad that enable laborers to become
entrepreneurs and even a dam in Zhob that can supply
water to 50 villages.
The South Asian poet Tagore inspires all of humanity:
Where the mind is
without fear
And the head held high
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards
perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening
thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom
The human spirit
can often burn most brightly in troubled times as
was displayed so vividly during the recent Hurricane
Katrina disaster. For further details about volunteering
with the Human Development Foundation please visit
www.HDF.com or call 1-800-705-1310.
Tax deductible donations can be made online or checks
made payable to "Human Development Foundation
and mailed to:
HDF
1350 Remington Road
Suite W
Schaumburg IL 60173
(The author is a CPA working in Investment Banking
in New York and an HDF volunteer. He can be reached
at Indus000@hotmail.com)
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