For those of you who want to send in donation from abroad, go here.

Instead of focusing on relief work, which we are conducting as well, a major chunk of this money is reserved for rebuilding and reconstruction of the people who have lost homes in this disaster. The relief operation that's being organized all over the country has got to be backed up by a rebuilding effort almost twice its size in order to recreate some semblance of normalcy in the lives of people who have lost everything.

The relief supplies being gathered at LUMS are all being sent out to the Bagh district which has been heavily affected by the 'quake. The entire operation is being co-ordinated with some local residents of the area one of whom is Adeel Khan who was a student at LUMS from the BSc 2003 batch. We're also co-ordinating with the Islamic Relief Foundation in Azad Kashmir. Below is a mail sent by Adeel to his Orkut contacts. It explains things better than I ever could.
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From: dlukhan@hotmail.com

Dear friends,

This mail is to update you on what's happening in District Bagh, Pakistani Kashmir.
You may forward this mail to other friends who might be interested in helping us out in the aid effort.

I visited Bagh on the day after the quake and managed to get a team of people from the survivors from amongst the locals to manage the distribution across Bagh. Amjad Yousaf will co-ordinate the aid from his house in the city centre (or what was the city centre). We intend to get food, medical supplies, tents, sleeping bags across hopefully to each remote village in Bagh with the help of the local distribution network that we have set up. In my (very conservative) estimate there have been 20,000 dead just in Bagh. And many more will die because of pneumonia, injuries and hunger in the next few days if we don't get these basic necessities across to them.

What we have done up till now is to send a heavy machine to clear the landslide on the dholi road going out from Bagh city. Tomorrow we need to send two more machines across towards bagh to sudn-gali land slide. This will help us establish road links with the remote villages making aid distribution easier. The army is helping as much as it can but we must realise that they need help as much as the civilians do in Bagh. There is no civil administration, it got wiped out in the quake. The major politicians and political workers also died. Most college going youngsters died. So we are working with very minimal human resources in Bagh todistribute aid.

There's lots of aid available in islamabad (food, clothing, medical stuff) but the problem we are facing right now is in getting this stuff to Bagh. Sowe need to hire trucks (a rare commodity now given the pressing need over vast areas) and heavy equipment for clearing landslides. Secondly, given the transport bottle neck we are intending to buy food stuff from whole salers in Bagh who have decided to hoard goods in their warhouses !

We have been discussing a possibiliy of a negotiated price for buying foodstuff from these warehouses in Bagh. These are the ways in which your money will be immediately used. If you are interested and able to contribute you can give in the money at the following account. We will give a balance sheet at the end of the aid process which in my estimate will take over a few months. Please also send an email with details of what amount you have sent so that we can keep track of your donations.

Account holders name: Adeel Khan
HSBC A/C: 02365928
Sort code: 401608

Account holders name: Majid Yousaf
HBL A/C : 2735-51
G-9/4, Islamabad Branch
Swift code: 1853

Thank you for your time,

Adeel Khan
PhD candidate
University of Cambridge