CHRISTIAN AGENCY: EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS LACK
SUPPORT
“Shelter Now”: Tsunami
Generated More Sympathy and Donations
By Wolfgang Polzer
Special to ASSIST News Service
Friday,
October 28, 2005
ISLAMABAD
(ANS) -- The Christian aid
agency “Shelter Now” has criticized a lack of support for the victims
of the earthquake in Pakistan and North India. After a visit to the
devastated area director Udo Stolte said that although the disaster
reaches the same dimensions as those of the tsunami the response is
lagging far behind.
Stolte estimates that the current death toll of around 80,000 may rise
to 100,000 because help is not getting to remote areas fast enough.
Winter is setting in, and already some people have died from exposure.
The number of four million people without shelter is more than twice as
high as the 1.7 million after the tsunami.
Stolte is dissatisfied with the media coverage of the ongoing tragedy
and the lack of donations. The independent Central Institute for Social
Issues in Berlin has just published the appropriate figures for
Germany.
In the first two weeks after the tsunami, which hit South East Asia
over Christmas last year, more than US-Dollars 360 million were
donated; the total added up to more than 800 million. By comparison,
the donations for the earthquake victims have so far reached 24
million.
Apparently a monster wave seems to generate more interest than an
earthquake, Stolte told the evangelical news agency “idea”. One reason
could be that in the case of Pakistan and India no Western tourists
were involved.
The most urgent need in the disaster zone is tents, says Stolte.
Shelter Now is providing 5,000 until December. The agency also plans to
rebuild houses, schools and clinics. It has ample experience in this
field. Shelter Now has been active in neighboring Afghanistan since
1988 and was involved in reconstruction work after three earthquakes
there.
The agency received international attention in 2001 when eight foreign
workers were taken hostage by the Taliban. They took them to court for
alleged missionary activity. After 102 days in captivity the Shelter
workers were liberated by US troops in November 2001.
Three former hostages from Germany – Silke Duerrkopf, Margit Stebner
and Georg Taubmann – have since returned to Afghanistan. Taubmann is
Shelter’s project manager for the region.
| Wolfgang Polzer (55),
is senior news editor of the Evangelical News Agency idea, Wetzlar
(Germany), which he joined in 1981. His previous work included four
years in the editorial department of the Salvation Army in Germany. In
all, he has spent 28 years in Christian media. Wolfgang can be
contacted by e-mail at: Wolfgang.Polzer@idea.de. |
 |
|
