wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] PDA sends $60,000 to Pakistan for quake victims

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8956 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05543
Oct. 10, 2005

PDA sends $60,000 to Pakistan
for survivors of titanic earthquake

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has sent $60,000 to
Pakistan to help survivors of a major earthquake.

	The money, from One Great Hour of Sharing and designated disaster
funds, is being channeled through Church World Service (CWS), PDA said in a
situation report issued Monday.

	Church World Service in Pakistan/Afghanistan began responding
immediately after the temblor struck on Saturday. Its epicenter was about 60
miles north-northeast of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

	CWS sent food to the hardest-hit areas of Pakistan - Azad Kashmir and
North West Frontier Province (NWFP), PDA said. 

	The food items included wheat flour, rice, sugar, cooking oil, tea
and salt.

	Matchboxes and soap also were provided to evacuee families. Health
camps are being set up to serve 50,000 to 100,000 people. Norwegian Church
Aid (NCA) has sent a team to assist with water and sanitation problems. 

	PDA, the relief arm of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and members
of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International are
providing immediate relief to survivors while preparing for a major organized
response, the PDA report said. 

	ACT is a Geneva-based international alliance of churches and relief
agencies.

	The quake, which measured 7.6 on the Richter scale of ground motion,
rocked parts of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Searchers were working into
the night Monday to recover bodies and find more survivors. The reported
death toll surpassed 30,000. In some areas, tempers flared over the slow pace
of relief efforts.

	PDA said all the PC(USA) mission personnel serving in Pakistan that
it managed to contact are safe. The two workers it has not been able to
reach, it said, are not stationed near the affected area and are believed to
be OK. PDA is sending the Rev Kathy Angi, a mission co-worker and
psychosocial specialist now serving in Hungary, to southern Asia to work with
NCA and the Church of Sweden in providing psychosocial care for survivors.  

	PDA is also enlisting the help of female seminary students at
Gujranwala Theological Seminary in Pakistan to serve as translators and to
train with Angi and others to provide long-term care.

	PDA Coordinator Susan Ryan and Pamela Burdine, PDA's associate for
communication and resources, could not be reached on Monday.

	Contributions to Pakistan earthquake relief may be sent through
normal mission-giving channels; designate gifts for account DR000038. To make
a gift by credit card, call PresbyTel at (800) 872-3283 or visit the Web
site: www.pcusa.org/pda/donate/accounts.htm. Checks payable to the PC(USA)
can be mailed to: Presbyterian Church (USA), Individual Remittance
Processing, P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700.

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