A team consisting of Faisal Khan, Noorodin and Satish (Lok Kala Manch, Jind) that left for Kashmir to carry out relief work on behalf of Asha Parivar on 12th October, 2005 reports.

Noorodin hails from Bandipura tehsil of Baramulla district. Along with him, Mushtaq, also from the same area and Naeem, a resident of Chandanbari of Uri tehsil, a 3 member coordination committee was constituted to carry out relief operations in Kashmir on behalf of Asha Parivar.

All these volunteers carry formal ‘Asha Parivar’ membership cards which makes it easier for them to move around and do their work. Poonch dist. of Jammu and Baramulla and Kupwara of Kashmir were the worst affected during the earthquake. In Baramulla, the Uri tehsil and in Kupwara, the Tangdar tehsil were worst affected.

Asha Parivar of Haryana with the initiative of Rampal Dahiya, Satish and Soni Saini had organized a mini-truck load of relief material to be sent to Kashmir. The relief material included 5000 utensils, 500 durries, 300 blankets, 500 warm clothing, 500 ordinary clothing, 40 kg of dates, 20 kg of tea leaves, 3 cartons of medicines, 6000 candles, 400 pair of footwear, etc. The medicines were all given to a military hospital and the remaining material was distributed by Asha Parivar - Delhi, Haryana and Kashmir volunteers during October 25-27, 2005.

A relief center was set up in a room in Pakeeza Musafirkhana in Baramulla for 15 days and this was used as a base by Faisal and team. After Faisal and the volunteers from Haryana returned, the local volunteers are operating from their villages. In addition to the above relief material an amount of Rs. 26,000 was spent on relief work. The details of the expenditure are given below.

The team was able to reach out to Uri, Parampira, Duaraan, Chandanbari, Salamabad, Kalgie, Kamalkot, Sialkot, Kawahar, Kaleban, Danyadiji, Sheri, Kalebaad, Sarai Badli, Kundi, Neelsar, Dudhbuk, Baandi, Bhanni and some others of Baramulla district and distributed food, clothes, utensils, rice, bakarkhani roti, tea leaves, dates, biscuits, candles, medicines, footwear, blankets, durries and also cash to some people who were in urgent need. Rice and blankets were also sent to Tangdar in Kupwara dist.

People need help in reconstructing their houses. Although about 10,000 houses have been completely razed, another 25-30,000 have suffered enough damage to render them unsafe for living, requiring fresh construction. Asha Parivar will be providing cash assistance to some families to help them with reconstruction efforts. It will be good if people from outside can volunteer to help in reconstruction of houses.

Asha Parivar is going to rent an office in Baramulla where people can go and stay. Metal boxes to keep their belongings safe are also required. Fodder for animals is also a need. 8000 animals perished in the earthquake.

Faisal is going there again on 14th November with some more material collected after his first trip. We would like to thank PIPFPD (Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy) for transferring the money from Delhi to Srinagar for us, to PEACE for accepting donations on our behalf to carry out this work and to AID for providing major support for further work.

Contacts:
Noorodin, Bandipura, Dist. Baramulla, J&K, 91-9906584465
Faisal Khan, Asha Parivar, Delhi, 24/84, Flat No. 3, Friends Apartment, Ghaffar Manzil, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi, faisalkj2002@yahoo.co.in, cpchindia@yahoo.com, Mobile: 9313106745
Rajeshwar, M: 9871602612, aid_rajeshwar@yahoo.com,
Kaleem, M: 9868619699,
Mayank, M: 9818361619


Total donations collected for relief work = Rs. 27,300.00

Expenses
Cash distributed = 9000.00
Biscuit, Bread distributed worth = 4700.00
Transportation (Haryana Truck) = 4300.00
Train Tickets (Both side) = 3000.00
Local Travelling = 1500.00
Room Charges (Pakiza Musafirkhana) = 1100.00
Telephone & Internet Charges = 1200.00
Roll Develop = 300.00
Meeting = 200.00
--------------------------
Total = 25,300.00

Advance to Noorodin (for local expenses) = 1000.00
Balance = 1000.00

Grand Total = 27,300.00

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