By Caroline Preston
Donations to help survivors of the earthquake that struck South Asia in October have topped $50-million, but the pace of giving has slowed even as relief workers prepare for additional challenges in providing aid during the winter months.
The 7.6-magnitude quake killed about 73,000 people and left another 3 million people homeless, many of whom now face freezing temperatures and illnesses brought on by the cold and poor sanitation. Relief groups are struggling to provide food and shelter before winter weather prevents them from reaching the victims.
"It's getting progressively worse," says Jennifer Norris, a spokeswoman for Relief International, in Los Angeles. "Snow has already begun to fall in many of the villages we're working in, and accessibility in these villages is getting more and more difficult."
Her organization has raised more than $923,000 in response to the earthquake, although most of that money was donated in the first month. "People gave when it first hit," she says.
While few groups can provide an estimate of how much they plan to spend in Pakistan, most fund raisers say the amount raised to date falls short of needs.
"We are about a tenth of where we want to be," says John Sauer, of Action Against Hunger, in New York. The relief organization has raised about $103,000, and does not plan a specific appeal for the earthquake because it believes its donor list has already been tapped out.
Other aid organizations, however, say that donations are still arriving. Mercy Corps, which has raised $8.5-million to date, brought in more than $100,000 over the Internet alone during the last week of November, for example.
"We have been pleasantly surprised by the sustained giving on this," said Jeremy Barnicle, the group's communications director.
Mr. Barnicle is also among several aid officials who say that fund raising for the earthquake may actually have been helped by the South Asia tsunamis and the Gulf Coast hurricanes.
Dean Agee, of International Aid, in Spring Lake, Mich., says that the number of active donors to his organization has grown from 6,500 to 22,000 over this past year, and he expects that a large percentage of those donors would consider giving to the earthquake if asked. In January the charity plans to send out an update on its work in Pakistan to donors. So far the group has raised $325,000 for quake victims.
AmeriCares, in Stamford, Conn., has thus far raised $2-million for the disaster and expects to ask individual donors and corporations that have a demonstrated interest in overseas giving to provide more help in the coming weeks.
Aid officials also predict that as the news media begins to focus more attention on Pakistan as conditions there deteriorate, more people will be inspired to give.
"It's possible we'll see a holiday spike when winter sets in and the public realizes just how dire the situation is," says Mr. Barnicle, of Mercy Corps.
Among the fund-raising results from organizations providing relief to earthquake victims: