As Winter Approaches, Activists Keep Aid Flowing To Pakistan Quake Survivors

New America Media, Mark Schurmann, Posted: Nov 22, 2005

Editor's Note: Bay Area organizers and members of local Indian and Pakistani communities raised $50,000 to help survivors of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

"Winter in the Himalayas is not the temperate, 72.3-degree climate of Berkeley," hostess Huma Dar reminded the audience at Saturday night's "Beyond Borders" benefit for victims of the south Asian Earthquake.

In fact, with severe winter conditions fast approaching, regions stricken by the 7.9-magnitude earthquake desperately need aid to prevent a second natural disaster. Freezing temperatures, disease, potential landslides, and lack of bathroom facilities, simple shelters and medical aid could decimate an already extremely vulnerable homeless population now numbered at 2.8 million.

"It's a continuing disaster. As winter approaches, roads to many small, mountainous villages will become inaccessible, leaving victims stranded and unaided," says organizer Shalini Gari. "It's a message we wanted to communicate more fully to people."

With only a month to plan, organizers put together a benefit that represented the richness and talent of the South Asian community in the Bay Area. Presentations included spoken word by nationally acclaimed slam poet Shailja Patel and a Sitar duet by Kamal Hyder and Nasir Syed.

Some 350 people attended the Nov. 18 event, and the near-capacity crowd raised $25,000 in ticket sales and pledges. That amount was matched by an anonymous donor, bringing the total to $50,000.

The benefit also represented a cooperative effort between Indian and Pakistani communities here in the Bay Area at a time when relations between the two countries are strained over the LOC (Line of Control) between India and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. That's a fact not lost on organizer Shalini Gari.

"Most of the relief efforts were coming directly from the Pakistani community," Gari says. "We wanted to organize an event where all our groups -- Indian, Pakistani, religious and secular -- could come together to aid the victims."

It's been an unprecedented year for natural disasters, one seemingly on top of the other, from the tsunami in Southeast Asia to Hurricane Katrina. Organizers of the "Beyond Borders" benefit hope to communicate the urgency for immediate and continuing aid, to prevent yet another disaster from occurring: the severe repercussions of winter in the Himalayas.

Mark Schurmann works for New America Media.

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