Afghanistan "devastated" by monsoon floods

[Liberty Belle]

Source: East County Magazine

Hundreds of thousands now face starvation as crops, soils washed away

Rescue Task Force seeks help to save lives of Afghan women & girls at literary schools


By Miriam Raftery

August 19, 2010 (San Diego) –“The same floods that are hitting Pakistan are hitting Afghanistan. It’s just horrific,” said Gary Beck, founder of Rescue Task Force, a San Diego-based nonprofit that has its roots in East County.



Beck has led relief efforts in some of the worst disasters on earth including the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, major earthquakes, and the Cedar Fire. But the scale of devastation in Afghanistan goes far beyond even those catastrophes. Threats from the Taliban make relief efforts dangerous—and with farmlands washed away, the very survival of the Hazara people is at stake.



Afghan farmer stands amid former croplands, now washed away by the floods.While most homes were on hilltops and did not suffer damage, farmlands have been ravaged by the flooding, Beck said in an exclusive interview with East County Magazine. “It’s not just the crops that are gone. The dirt is gone, scooped right down to the bedrock. They don’t have seed for the next planting—and they don’t have dirt to put the seeds in. We can’t help with that. It’s too big for us to do.”


Rescue Task Force volunteers are doing what they can. A coordinator has been using school funds to buy flour and oil. “We have some money and we’re trying to raise more—but we can’t feed hundreds of thousands of people,” said Beck. “We’re focusing our relief efforts where our schools are.”




Read more: http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/4010

---

Please help get word out. While the world focuses on flood damage in Pakistan, nobody has yet reported on the devastation in Afghanistan, where the Hazara people face an even more dire situation--and no global relief effort has been mounted. I am the author of this story and give permission for it to be reprinted anywhere and everywhere, as long there's a link to our site.

Save lives! Kick, recommend, and repost this anyplace that will run with it, please. If anyone has an idea for how to save these people, let me know.

[Prometheus Bound]

1. Is this really true? I can find nothing about it anywhere else.

And if it were true, why would Afghanistan be donating money to Pakistan flood victims?


Afghanistan gives $1 million to Pakistan flood victims
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/04-afghanistan-aid-to-pakistan-qs-06

[Liberty Belle]

2. Yes it is true. I've known this source for many years.

Afghanistan may have donated before it was hard-hit itself in recent days, and also Kabul is far from the remote areas flooded; word may not yet have reached the capital. There are also Afghan refugees living in Pakistan.

Rescue Task Force is a locally-based organization that is supported by prominent community leaders on both sides of the political aisle. I've talked to Gary many times and have never heard him sound so devastated. This is a huge, untold story.

[Liberty Belle]

4. It's getting into the news some now; here are new links to corroborate:

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/08/18/4919525-in-eastern-afghanistan-flooding-hits-home
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=90190

[Turborama]

3. During their barbaric reign, the Taliban committed genocide to try and wipe out the Hazaris

See here for more details...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8922280&mesg_id=8922372

&

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8922280&mesg_id=8923044

&

http://www.hazara.net/taliban/genocide/genocide.html


I wonder if the current government feels the same way about them.


Thanks for highlighting this tragedy. I rec'd earlier, BTW.

[cosmicone]

5. Afghanistan is poor and needs help way more than Pakistan

It is one of the poorest countries, they have suffered far more for 30 years and my heart goes out to their suffering.

[JI7]

9. fucked up

Haiti is poor and needs way more help than unemployed americans.................

[aquart]

6. "The dirt is gone, scooped right down to the bedrock. "

You know what that means. The farms are gone. They have to leave. And there's nowhere to go.

We really haven't coped with this kind of disaster that I know of. We're used to survivors staying in place and attempting to rebuild. But you can't rebuild without the earth. In 2000 BC or thereabouts the entire world seemed to change as people moved off ancestral homelands and pushed their way into other lands but we never knew why. Maybe this is why.

There are going to be many, many rootless, homeless people with nothing to go back to. This is going to engulf the world.

[Turborama]

7. US troops recue flood victims in Afghanistan

This is from 3 weeks ago, not sure if it's the same area or the same time, as the article in the OP doesn't have those specifics...


Search and rescue efforts continue in Afghanistan as flood waters damage farm land and swell rivers in the region. U.S. troops conducted helicopter missions to search for stranded people, 11 miles from Jalalabad near the Pakistani border.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xe9jqd_us-troops-recue-flood-victims-in-af_news

[aquart]

8. Posted to Facebook.

Since I don't know what to do, I can at least tell people.

Also tweeted this to State Department:



@StateDept What about the HAZARA people in Afghanistan? http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/4010

[Turborama]

12. Nice idea

I've added it to my Facebook to spread the word.

I don't use Twitter but hopefully someone at the SD will notice your tweet and other Twitterers (sp?) might get inspired to do the same thing, too.....

:kick:

[dipsydoodle]

10. Joint and several - hit both

From July 30th :

Flood deaths pass 400 in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

More than 400 people have been killed and 400,000 displaced by monsoon flooding in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Most died in north-west Pakistan, while across the border in Afghanistan at least 60 were killed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10815265

I'm guessing this is to do with the river runs and Pakistan having the main river has been more advsely affected. Does however seem odd that little mention has been made of Afghanistan.

More here from Wednesday this week : http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/08/18/4919525-in-eastern-afghanistan-flooding-hits-home

[niyad]

11. can't rec, but will kick, as I just saw this.