Associations

Message from Association of Pakistani Professionals

Dear All

It makes me feel immensly proud and at the same time emotional that I am around an incredibly sincere, honest and dedicated group of people who are doing all what they can and more to support and help the victims of the earthquake. Kudos to Samad Wazir and Fahad Aziz, two AOPPIANS who championed the process and strategized with the consulate to come out with proper forms and guidelines to guide and help the Pakistani community of New York and New Jersey in donating generously to the victims of the earthquake. Both of them at times drove the truck all night long to collect boxes from various corners of the tri-state area. When all was said and done they lined up more than 7 loads of trucks filled with tents, jackets, blankets and medicines by Saturday. I salute them and pray to Allah to reward them with his best.

I must congratulate the Consulate General of Pakistan in New York also, especially headed by the Consul General, Mr. Haroon Shaukat and incredibly assisted by Syed Fawad Sher who was the person behind making sure that all the NOC's are signed in a timely fashion. Fawad, the Vice Consul General was extremly helpful throughout the process and was easily accessible throughout the process including late nights and over the weekend. What we saw last week was a true sense of unity where everybody from the community, to the consulate and PIA worked like a team and helped and facilitated the process of shipping the boxes asap.

In Central Jersey alone, two more trucks were loaded (almost 2 loads of trucks are being packed as I write). MCMC, the Muslim Center of Middlesex County took the lead and shipped two loads of trucks alone. It must be added that the volunteers, mostly women and children, worked all night long for more than two consecutive nights to sort each box according to the item, mark them and seal them properly. The two trucks were packed so nicely and properly that they lead the loads of trucks that are lined up at PIA cargo. All the local stores that carry tents, The Sports Authority, Costco, Walmart, Sears and all the shops in the area had no tents left by the time.

I must stress however that the work is not complete. The victims of the earthquake still need us and it is imortant to continue and help those who have lost everything. Medicine and tents are still a priority. We are also looking into providing sheets of steel that can be put with the help of two "katchi dewar". Advantage of steel sheets over tents is that one can cook food as well as keep the area warm in cold weather. MCMC is working on getting the process of steel sheets streamlined and I will pass on the information as soon as we finalize the strategy of providing steel sheets. We are also looking in Pakistan to get the makeshift tents made instead of being shipped from other places and again I will keep you guys briefed.

Again, I thank all you who participated in one way or the other to help our brothers and sisters in Pakistan who are going through the worst time of their lives. Please continue the good work as we have lot more to do. AOPP has already started strategizing for Phase 2 and all the information will be posted in a week on http://rebuildpakistan.com - remember, our work is not complete, we need to do a lot more, Let's rebuild Pakistan by donating generously.

Sincerely,

S. Asif Alam
http://aopp.org/eq

P@SHA - Call for Volunteers

Dear friends,

The devastation, destruction and loss of life in the northern areas of Pakistan continues to haunt all of us. It is heartening to see that so many people from all walks of life have got together to help alleviate the suffering of all those that have been affected by the quake and to donate so generously in both cash and kind.

The one weak thread through all of this has been project management or the lack of it, simply due to the enormity of the task at hand. As a community that specializes in automating and improving the processes involved in running businesses and government, it would be a shame if we could not help streamline the relief activities and make them more effective.

P@SHA has therefore offered its assistance to the PM's Secretariat and Relief Cell. We are putting together a team of experts who will analyze the needs of the relief organizations including the government, the army and the NGOs etc and will link it all up to provide some sort of cohesive approach to the activities thus saving a lot of time and increasing the pace of relief activities.

In the process we will need expertise of varying types:

Hardware Installation & Maintenance
Networking
Wireless Communication Installation, Deployment & Maintenance System Analysts
Project Managers
ASP.NET/HTML developers
PHP developers
Java developers
SQL server developers
mySQL developers
Graphic/Interface designers
Data Entry people
People for Information Gathering
Content creation/development/management specialists
Communication specialists able to deal with telecom/satellite equipment

Some of the volunteers may be required to work in their respective cities, others may be asked to work in Islamabad or at the relief sites in the northern areas. Please do therefore specify where you are stationed and whether you will be available or able to relocate to any of the sites if necessary and for what period of time.

P@SHA will be working with various IT and telecom organizations. Some of them including Intel have already volunteered equipment and connectivity. We are also working with Shahida Saleem and Azhar Rizvi on implementing telemedicine in the affected areas.

Please indicate your interest or those of your employees by sending an email to volunteers@pasha.org.pk. I would appreciate it if you would circulate this message to your teams and anyone that you feel would be able to assist.

Jehan Ara

FPCCI

The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry has planned to raise Rs 50 million funds for the affected people of earthquake. Rs10 million donations were announced by the FPCCI President, Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed, as an initial contribution.

Lions Club

President Lions Club, Ashok Mehta and Board of Directors of the International Association of Lions Clubs have sanctioned US$ 250,000 for quake victims. US$ 200,000 will be spent on projects of houses, schools and health centers rehabilitation, while US$ 50,000 will be spent on other works.

Association of Builders and Developers

The Association of Builders and Developers has pledged Rs 5 million in cash and relief goods worth Rs10 million.

EOBI

The Employees Old Age Benefits Institution has pledged to contribute Rs 10 million.

Fisherman's Cooperative Society

Fisherman’s Cooperative Society will donate Rs 0.5 million.

Association of TV Journalists

The Association of TV Journalists has delivered a cheque of Rs 50,000 to the Sindh Governor as a donation for the earthquake victims.

Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America

We are all saddened by the tragedy and devastation caused by the earthquake in the northern areas. OPEN has already mobilized for relief, asking for donations off the website of each chapter at http://www.opennewengland.org/. In addition, a Boston charter member who is in a senior position in bio tech has received a commitment for $5 million in emergency medical supplies from Americares. PIA has agreed for free transportation, and we are now working within the OPEN leadership and membership to collect the $25k within the next 72 hours that we have committed to Life USA to facilitate local transportation and logistics once the supplies arrive in Pakistan, hopefully within the week.

Best Regards

Imran Qidwai

P@SHA Earthquake Disaster Relief

As most of you are aware, a massive earthquake devastated much of the northern areas of our country on 8 October 2005 killing close to 20,000 people, injuring thousands and making many more homeless.

The thousands of survivors need our help. You can provide urgently needed disaster relief supplies like tents, clothing, blankets, sheets, etc directly to the Pakistani Government or other relief organizations that are involved in providing comfort and emergency assistance to those that need it.

I am sure many of you have already answered the many calls for emergency relief material. As part of our effort, I think P@SHA should raise funds from amongst our member organizations and then offer it to one of the relief funds as an organization.

We are quite shell-shocked by what has happened. Let us unite in our efforts to help those of our brethren who so badly need our generosity at this time.

Please send all cheques made out to the Pakistan Software Houses Association with a note that indicates that this is for the Earthquake Relief Fund.

Jehan Ara – President P@SHA

Pakistan-Canada Association

PAKISTAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF FUND
Royal Bank of Canada
Branch No: 05600
Transit No: 003
Account No: 1009067
http://www.pakcan.com/pakistan_earthquake_relief.shtml