I have been touch at a personal level with a number of people on the ground and Shaila and I have decided to concentrate our efforts on this small project.

Shaila and I are working on a fundraising program to support the Children's Unit of PIMS, the main hospital in Islamabad for medicine and care for children that are coming in from the earthquake areas for treatment. Dr. Tabish, a pediatrician at PIMS (he was my children's pediatrician when I was on sabbatical there) and Mehnaz Akber (Shaila's sister) who runs a children's education NGO CRI have joined hands to handle the logistics. The first group of 200 children have arrived in Islamabad . Most of the injuries are broken bones. See Mehnaz's document on the situation in the hospital, the children names (List1, List2, List3, List4)and pictures [Picture1, Picture2, Picture3, Picture4] (Note: This are not pretty so please be advised.) Mehnaz has set up a database with all their names, father's name and district of residence so we can accurately track who is getting what. We are estimating roughly $100 for each of these kids to arrange for stay and upkeep of family members. We hope to be able to track these children over time as well. I have that list. I also have pictures of these kids and they are not pretty. Aneesa, my daughter became really upset because one of the kids was wearing a Pakistan cricket shirt that my son Mohi also has. I plan to send money in chunks of $1500 or so. All money sent will be receipted and documented.

Our one aim of fundraising is to involve the local schools here in Claremont and elsewhere to support these kids. The idea here is that this can involve the children here in the USA in direct contact with children over there who are in dire need of help. Others are also welcome to join in. I am working on a tax id number and making it more formal. On the other hand, the money is 100% going to go to these kids and there is tremendous energy in volunteers right now that I want to tap and move quickly right away.

Dr. Tabish is really worried that while the roads opening up is good news, his unit is going to be swamped with casualties coming from the quake stricken areas so we need to move fast.

Hopefully, we should have another program going working with the students here in the college in the next few days as well.