19th October, 2005
DAVID ADAMS

The destruction is total. In some areas whole villages have disappeared while others show towns like the once thriving Himalayan community of Balakot flattened as though a giant had trodden through them, crushing all in its path.

Once again the world watched in horror, this time as news arrived of a devastating earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale which shook parts of northern Pakistan, India and the disputed Kashmir region as well as Afghanistan.

Initial estimates from the 8th October earthquake put the death toll from the catastrophe at around 30,000 but that experts are now saying as many as 54,000 may have died in the region. Up to four million have been affected by the disaster with at least 500,000 people left homeless.

Australian Greg Campbell was among a global rapid response team of experts sent in by World Vision in the immediate aftermath of the quake.

Speaking to Sight from Islamabad in Pakistan earlier this week where there was only minimal damage, the IT specialist told of his recent visit to Mansehra, close to the epicentre of the quake.

He says that while the damage to the town of Manshera itself was minimal, stories were filtering in which told of utter devastation in the surrounding villages.

“What I’ve heard from other people is that the destruction is enormous,” he says. “Entire villages have been flattened.”

Campbell says the spiralling death toll had come had no surprise given the damage that was being reported.

In Mansehra itself, he says people fleeing the destruction are “everywhere”.

“Every patch of grass is basically taken up by families...” he says. “Most of them have escaped with virtually nothing - there’s like a little pile of clothes or blankets that they’ve been able to dig out and bring with them. People have been sleeping outside on the grass just under blankets without tents or anything because there’s no enough tents.”

Campbell spoke with some of the injured children while visiting the local hospital.

He tells of one 10-year-old boy who had gone to school on the morning of the quake but, finding his teacher absent, had decided to return home.

The boy was there when the quake struck, burying him under the rubble of his home.

“He was trapped for nine hours - it wasn’t until 6pm that he was dug out,” says Campbell.

The boy, who is now in hospital with serious head injuries, abrasions and a broken leg, was carried to hospital in a three hour journey by his 20-something brother who remains at his bedside. Traumatised by what occurred, the 10-year-old hasn’t spoken since the quake.

Despite all this, the boy was one of the fortunate ones. About 120 of his classmates who were believed to have still been at the school when the earthquake struck are believed to have been killed.

“Strangely there’s some twist of fate and the guy whose lying in hospital with serious head injuries is the lucky one,” says Campbell.

Campbell has worked with World Vision for the past five or six years and has been deployed to places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Liberia as well as the Iranian city of Bam which was struck by an earthquake last year.

“The thing that is different here to Bam is that children have been so much impacted here,” he says. “Because of the time of day, a lot of the children were in school and in some areas the schools have collapsed...A lot of children have been killed and I heard people saying that in some villages a whole generation has been lost.”

“It really tugs on your heartstrings when you see the little kids that have been affected so much and you know that so many parents have lost their children and whole villages are grieving.”

Every day new stories of loss are coming to light. Campbell says that one of the World Vision staff members had lost 20 members of his family in the quake. Sadly his is not an uncommon story.

While finding the dead will take weeks if not months (and some bodies may never be recovered), the immediate priority for aid agencies is to provide for the survivors’ immediate physical needs.

While the construction of permanent accommodation will have to wait until after winter, World Vision is among aid agencies which are helping to people have some temporary shelter, particularly important given that winter is coming with temperatures in the region plummeting to well below zero degrees.

“Our priority is to give people the basic requirements that they need to survive,” says Campbell.

World Vision is also once again establishing what it calls child friendly spaces as it did in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami.

These are aimed at providing children with a safe place and helping them to process the grief and get back into a normal routine as quickly as possible.

While the Australian Government has already announced it will send $10 million in aid to help victims of the quake, with the event coming in the wake of the Asian tsunami there are some fears that people in donor countries such as Australia will suffer from what is known as “donor fatigue”.

Campbell says that while such fears are understandable, it’s important Australians realise that a little can make a big difference.

“It only takes a small donation from a lot of people and we can make a significant difference,” he says.

“I would urge that - as somebody who is here, somebody who has met the people and seen the damage - please continue the generosity that we saw (after) the tsunami.”

HOW TO HELP:

The following are among the organisations that have launched appeals in response to the earthquake

Anglican Board of Mission - Australia
1300 302 663 or www.abmission.org

AngliCORD
1800 249 880 or www.anglicord.org.au

AUSTCARE
1300 66 66 72 or www.austcare.org.au

Australian Red Cross
1800 811 700 or www.redcross.org.au

Baptist World Aid Australia
1300 789 991 or www.shareanopportunity.org

Care Australia
1800 020 046 or www.careaustralia.org.au

Caritas Australia
1800 024 413 or www.caritas.org.au

Christian World Service
1800 025 101 or www.ncca.org.au/cws

Oxfam Australia
1800 034 034 or www.oxfam.org.au

Plan
13PLAN/ 137526 or www.plan.org.au

TEAR Australia
1800 244 986 or www.tear.org.au

UNICEF Australia
1300 884 233 or www.unicef.org.au

World Vision Australia
13 32 40 or www.worldvision.org.au