Re: flood awareness email campaign
Here is the email that is circulating at our office:
Dear Colleague,
Pakistan is currently suffering from the most devastating floods to be seen by the country in close to a century. Nearly 20 million people are affected who have lost family members, their homes and their livelihoods.
Donations do not need to be to an organization that you have never heard off; you can help right here at . The Toronto Site Council is working with The Imran Khan Foundation and Pakistan International Airlines to compile, package and deliver LIFEBOXES; a care pack containing basic necessities that will provide sustenance to stranded groups of people while they await rescue and transport to temporary camps.
The devastation is so pronounced that the Spokesperson for OCHA - The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated on record that:
"It looks like the number of people affected in this crisis is higher than the Haiti earthquake, the tsunami or the Pakistan earthquake, and if the toll is as high as the one given by the government, it’s higher than the three of them combined,"
Words cannot describe the misery that is seen in Pakistan today, nor are they enough to give adequate respect to those who have lost loved ones and have seen their ancestral homes destroyed. Pakistan by no means is a rich country; a majority of the population is rural who survive on under a dollar a day. To put it in perspective they can not even buy a bottle of coke by our standards on any given day. Feeding a family of 4 or 5 is near to impossible. Now imagine that abject poverty completely washed away in torrential rains and flood so damning that they submerge entire villages, cities and valleys.
This is usually when the generic spam e-mail you receive says "But there is a solution" like a bad 4 am infomercial. Sadly there is no real solution. Pakistan and its people will suffer the after affects of this flood for decades to come. Some sources including the US Government have stated that 15 billion dollars would be needed to reconstruct all the damage to the roads and bridges alone. Bringing life back to normalcy is not even on the horizon.
What is on the horizon is Cholera, Malaria, Typhoid and a number of other preventable diseases. What is needed is your support.
The local council of is working with The Imran Khan Foundation and Pakistan International Airlines to compile, package and deliver LIFEBOXES; a care pack containing basic necessities that will provide sustenance to stranded groups of people while they await rescue and transport to temporary camps. The cost of one LIFEBOX is no more than $15. Your donation of one LIFEBOX will provide soap, UHT milk, cookies, juice boxes, saltines, dried fruit, ORS (for rehydration), disposable cups, etc. It could mean the difference between life and death for a number of stranded people.
If you are able to help these people at a time of critical need, please contact a member of your local council (cc’d above) and donate what you can. We will be collecting funds, purchasing supplies and packing the LIFEBOXES over the next week.
Thank you for your donation!
jealous