AmeriCares Sends Airlift To Pakistan

Working with Islamic Relief to Deliver Medical Assistance

Stamford, CT, October 11 2005 – An AmeriCares airlift is leaving for Pakistan today, bringing 30,000 pounds of medical relief to aid the hundreds of thousands of people affected by Saturday’s catastrophic 7.6 magnitude earthquake. AmeriCares is partnering with the humanitarian agency Islamic Relief, which has mobilized relief teams throughout the region to assess the needs of survivors.

The airlift is leaving Amsterdam at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. EST) and will arrive in Islamabad at 2 p.m. local time on Wednesday (5 a.m. EST). The plane is carrying disaster relief supplies including antibiotics, analgesics, and basic first aid supplies valued at $1.5 million. An AmeriCares emergency response team member is accompanying the flight.

“The situation in Pakistan is of such a magnitude that it merits our utmost effort,” said John Connell, AmeriCares director of emergency response. “Working with partner Islamic Relief enables us to leverage their expertise to deliver this aid where it is most needed.”

“We are very fortunate to have established offices and staff on the ground in the affected areas,” said Islamic Relief Media and Public Relations Manager Arif Shaikh. “Because of our capacity, we were able to begin relief efforts within hours of the disaster. AmeriCares has been a great partner for us, and working together with them, we can reach even more beneficiaries.”

Islamic Relief, which has been working in Pakistan since 1992, has been leading international teams in the earthquake relief effort since Saturday, guiding aid workers in and around Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where the quake struck. The agency is also working in other affected areas, such as Neelum Valley, where Islamic Relief’s health center is the only functioning medical center in the area.

AmeriCares has responded to earthquakes many times in its 23-year history. When a 7.9 earthquake hit Gujarat state in India in 2001, AmeriCares sent an airlift with medical supplies, water purification treatments, tents, blankets and other aid. Working directly in the quake zone, AmeriCares organized the distribution of these relief supplies to hundreds of thousands displaced by the earthquake. More recently, AmeriCares deployed an airlift of more than 70,000 pounds of medicines and aid into Bam, Iran, after a 6.3 earthquake in December 2003.

To learn more about AmeriCares’ relief efforts in Pakistan, or to make a contribution to support these efforts, log onto sandbox.americares.org or call 1-800-486-HELP (4357). For more information about Islamic Relief, log onto www.irw.org or call (888) 479-4968.