UAE Red Crescent Society distributes relief goods in quake-hit areas

ISLAMABAD—The UAE Red Crescent Society's team has distributed relief goods in Patika, Azad Kashmir with the cooperation of the Cabinet Division, the UAE Ambassador Ali Mohammed Al Shamsi said here on Sunday.
Al Shamsi said that choppers carried blankets, tents and food supplies to hundreds of affectees in Patika. The RCS has so far brought seven planes with relief goods on board and purchases have also been from the local market, he said. Meanwhile, several associations in UAE continue their appeal for donations.
The Women Associations in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah are mobilizing campaigns to collect donations.
Ambassador Al Shamsi said that the UAE government is wholeheartedly participating in the multinational assistance and support all the efforts by the government of Pakistan to provide aid to victims of thedevastating 7.6 magnitude earthquake that caused massive destruction to Mansehra district in NWFP and Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Rawlakot in Azad Kashmir.
The Ambassador, while giving details of relief assistance offered by UAE, said that soon after the quake happened UAE donated $100.00 millions to the government of Pakistan.
Al Shamsi said that search and rescue teams comprised 95-member arrived from Abu Dhabi and Dubai with sniffer dogs soon after the quake hit Pakistan. He said that armed forces delegation and medical teams established a fully equipped 100-bed field hospital in Balakot on October 12.
A relief air bridge has been established and 25 planes with relief goods brought with around 1200 tons of items. The Ambassador said the military Institute for rehabilitation medicine in Rawalpindi and the UAE Armed Forces has agreed on an arrangement for the treatment of serious cases in UAE. He informed that a total of 38 serious injured were airlifted to UAE. He said that a UAE Red Crescent Society team has surveyed the affected areas and engaged in distribution of tents, blankets, food items and medicines purchased from the local market.
H said that Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for Charitable and Humanitarian Works is engaged in relief operations in Balakot. A total of 12,000 blankets and 7600 tents have been distributed and ration cards were given to 5600 registered families in Janoon and other villages in the first week. The UAE Scouts has donated 40 tons of relief goods of which 20 tons and the consignment arrived here. He said that Pakistani community in UAE has also sent eight planes with relief goods including tents, blankets, medicines and food items.—INP