Immediate Release
Contact: Asim Kaghzi, Information Secretary
info-secretary@sanalist.org
February 24th, 2011
Sindhi Association of North America to Utilize $150K Raised Donations for the Rehabilitation of Flood Affected Farmers in Sindh Pakistan
Garden Grove, CA, Sindhi Association of North America (SANA), a non-profit organization based in USA and Canada announced today of its signing the Memorandum of Understanding with Engro Foundation, Pakistan for the partnership project to rehabilitate farmer communities in District Dadu, Sindh, Pakistan. The Memorandum was signed between Dr Veleed Shaikh, the President SANA and Tahir Jawaid, a Trustee of Engro Foundation.
In Fall 2010, Pakistan faced one of the worst flood in the living history. The flood took the lives of more than 2000 people and livelihood of more than 20 million people in Pakistan. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called a "slow-motion tsunami." Comparing the number of people affected by the floods in Pakistan in 2010, Mr Ki-moon said, "That is more than the entire population hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Kashmir earthquake, Cyclone Nargis, and the earthquake in Haiti – combined."
More than 10 million people were affected in Sindh, losing their homes, livelihood, villages and loved ones. More than 5000 villages and towns have totally disappeared from the face of the earth. More than 40% of farmland in Sindh is still under water and perhaps will not be ready for planting of next year’s crops. The floods have severely damaged the communication networks and infrastructure in Sindh province.
SANA Flood Relief Committee with the coordination of Dr Aijaz Turk and its members namely, Ms Noornisa Ghaghro, Mr. Jamil Daudi, Dr Saghir Shaikh, Dr Valeed Shaikh and Mr Asim Kaghzi, raised about $150,000 USD with grass root efforts of it members and friends throughout the USA and Canada.
About $24,000 (approx PKR 20 lacs) were sent in Fall 2010 to Sindh Graduates’ Association, an non-profit organization in Sindh, to support of a few relief camps in Karachi.
SANA shall be spending US $124,000 (approx. PKR One Crore) in buying the milk producing livestock to approximately 100 farmers in flood affected villages in District Dadu - one of the worst hit area in Pakistan. It has partnered with Engro Foundation, which shall be responsible for execution of the project and providing the logistic an planning support. A deliberate effort will be carried out to involve women farmers. It is estimated that project of buying and supplying the livestock will be carried out in 3 months. Both SANA and Engro Foundation will jointly monitoring the progress of the rehabilitation for twelve months.
“We wanted to spend major portion of funds in rehabilitation effort, we wanted to help people of flood affected areas rebuild their lives, our goal was to identify a project and a reliable partner, this project of live stock restocking addresses both challenges,” said Dr Valeed Shaikh , the President of SANA.
“In our focus areas of Sindh over 3.5 million livestock have been affected in Kashmore, Shikarpur, Larkana, Jacobabad and Dadu.”, said Mr Jiwan Das, Director Engro Foundation.
Engro Foundation is very wlel placed to carry this kind of project as it has also partnered with USAID, Pakistan for the rehabilitation of livestock in other flood affected areas of Sindh under the project named ‘Khushaal Livestock’ program.
“It is a small contribution for a big disaster but for SANA it is big achievement and we owe this to the victims. It is tragic time for our people in Sindh,” said Dr Aijaz Turk.
“This is a great display of a grass-root effort” said, Ms Noornisa Ghanghro Vice President SANA, “SANA members, friends, and American and Canadians public opened their hearts and wallets to raise these funds. Many individuals and organizations came forward to help,” she added.
It has been reported in International media, that even six months after the worst floods in the history of Pakistan, millions are still in dire need of assistance, and there are new warnings about malnutrition in the worst-hit province, Sindh. But money donated to the prime minister's relief fund has still not been spent.
Dr Maqbool Halepota,General Secretary SANA said that the SANA shall continue raising funds for such projects. The relief and rehabilitation will take years to normalize, added Mr Halepota.
Flood relief work and fund raising campaign updates can be viewed at http://sanafloodfund.blogspot.com/
About Sindhi Association of North America (SANA):
SANA is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization to unite Sindhis in North America and everywhere; to defend the historic national rights of Sindhi people; to foster friendship and understanding between Sindhis and other nationalities; to educate people about Sindhi Civilization, philosophy, values, language, literature, history and heritage; to carry out educational and relief work in Sindh and other provide resources for Sindhis living in North America. For more information visit http://www.sanalist.org/
About Engro Foundation:
Engro Foundation is committed to growth of sustainable societies in which people have access to choices and opportunities for development. The Foundation serves as a single platform for community engagement activities and social investments of Engro affiliates. By pooling their financial and managerial resources under the Foundation, Engro affiliates seek to create large scale social impact. For more information visit http://www.engro.com/flood/.
