Home 
News Archive News from HealthServe: CMF Thanks Members for Response to the Kashmir Earthquake AppealOctober 2005
CMF Thanks Members for Response to the Kashmir Earthquake Appeal
On 21 October CMF emailed all its members to alert them to the acute crisis in Kashmir and surrounding areas of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan following the earthquake on 8 October. In just ten days CMF members have given over £30,000 ($50,000) towards the costs of providing essential supplies and medical care to families and individuals made homeless and left injured and bereaved and this is being passed on to those on the front line right now through The The Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund (TEAM).
We have also had over 30 offers of practical help from members and other health professionals in the UK and abroad and have linked volunteers with agencies such as SIM and Humedica International which are assembling teams to offer medical assistance where it is needed most. In addition, we have linked up with partner ministries such as Linking Hands in Singapore, who are also referring people with appropriate skills to the agencies that need them.
The situation in Kashmir has disappeared from the media spotlight, but continues to be a cause of grave concern. The 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck close to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir is known to have caused more than 68,000 deaths in India & Pakistan, the vast majority being in Pakistani administered Kashmir. More than 2.5 million people have been made homeless, or put at risk due to collapsed roads and other damage to essential infrastructure. The UN fear that as many as 100,000 could die in the next few months alone unless shelter, food, medical care and supplies are brought to them.
We received this news update today from one of our members based the affected region:
“It has now been three weeks since the earthquake. The hospital has treated several hundred earthquake-injured patients and we continue to treat more than 100 in-patients in our 50-bed hospital. Some of our patients simply have nowhere to go and are living in tents set up in front of the hospital.
The rush of acute trauma has decreased, but we are now getting patients with late injuries who have in many cases been given inadequate treatment. Many wounds are infected. A ten-year-old girl had surgery for a broken leg in a hospital near us. She came to us near death with muscle spasms from a tetanus infection in the surgical site. We were forced to amputate her leg. The day after she arrived we found the tetanus anti-toxin she needed among some donated medicines. She is slowly recovering. Only she and her mother survived the earthquake.
There is a woman who delivered her third child last week. She and her husband and two children have been living outside in the rain and cold. Her father, brother and two nephews were killed when the house collapsed. The new baby is now very sick with sepsis and may not survive.
These are a few of many tragic stories.
- PRAY for strength and sensitivity of our staff as we care for the patients in a very busy time.
- PRAISE for the generous donation of six truckloads of medical equipment and supplies for the earthquake victims and beyond. Two technicians came along to set up the equipment and repair existing problems.
- PRAISE for an orthopaedic surgeon from South Carolina, who has helped us deal with the many fractures.
We have begun to distribute food, clothing and tents to villages targeted by our contacts as being the most neglected.”
CMF wishes to express its thanks to the many members who have responded to the appeal either by giving or in volunteering to go, and to the many other members who have given through other agencies. If you have not yet responded but would like to, our online giving site remains open at www.cmfrelief.givengain.org. News updates are available on thiat site or here on the HealthServe website.
Please continue to pray for those affected and those seeking to provide help and hope in this awful situation.
