INDIA Churches Rush Medical Volunteers To Quake-hit Kashmir

Posted: 17th October 2005

NEW DELHI (UCAN) -- Volunteers from various parts of India have moved into remote villages of Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir state as members of relief and rescue missions sent by Christian aid agencies to the Indian side of earthquake-shattered Kashmir.

"We are concentrating on the remotest villages, where no relief has arrived," Father Alex Vadakkumthala told UCA News on Oct. 14 from the Kashmir valley. The priest, secretary of the Indian Catholic bishops' Commission for Health, went there immediately after the earthquake hit on Oct. 8.

The quake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale, flattened villages in the hilly Himalayan region. About 1,200 deaths have been reported from the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, while the death toll in the Pakistani-controlled part, where the epicenter of the earthquake was located, is now said to be close to 40,000.

"Numerous teams" -- each with at least a doctor -- "are going to the villages," as they have since the disaster struck, to provide relief supplies, medical assistance and trauma counseling, Father Vadakkumthala reported by telephone from the quake-hit town of Baramulla.

Christian volunteers from the northern Indian cities of Dehradun, Meerut and New Delhi joined local Church groups in medical and relief operations, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India official said.

He added that the volunteers have brought some people requiring serious medical attention to Baramulla's St. Joseph's Hospital, the base of the Catholic relief effort. The 100-bed hospital, managed by Franciscan Missionaries of Mary nuns, is the oldest health-care center in the valley.

Elaborating on the Church relief operation, Father Vadakkumthala said the volunteers set out in vehicles at around 8 a.m. every day. But they have to leave the vehicles and walk for several hours to reach remote villages.

"Their remoteness makes the rescue and relief operations worse. Continuous rains and cold weather add to the problem," Father Vadakkumthala said.

As a way of illustrating the situation, the priest narrated an experience a team of Catholic volunteers had a few days ago. The team had split into two groups and agreed to meet at 5:30 p.m. at the foot of a hill, where a bus would be wait to pick them up.

"One team came back on time, but there was no news about the other," Father Vadakkumthala continued. The missing team, it turned out, had to seek shelter in a house in a remote village because of heavy rain. They could not contact the others because electricity and communication lines were down.

The villagers had "suffered so much," the priest said, but they treated "our volunteers with affection, shared blankets, whatever food they had."

Baramulla and its surroundings are considered the hotbed of Islamic insurgents who have waged a war for independence from India for the past 15 years. The war between the insurgents and the Indian Army has killed an estimated 80,000 people in Jammu and Kashmir.

Since the quake hit, Church volunteers have been providing kits containing utensils, rice and lentils to families in the villages. "We have distributed hundreds of blankets to the people," Father Vadakkumthala said, adding that he expected more truckloads of blankets and other items to arrive from New Delhi and other places.

Also expected are doctors and paramedics from Church-run St. John's Medical College in Bangalore, southern India, and St. Jude's hospital in Jhansi, central India, according to the priest.

The Commission for Health secretary said Caritas India, the local Church's social-service arm, and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the U.S. bishops agency for social service abroad, are pooling resources with Jammu-Srinagar diocese's social-service society to help the earthquake victims.

Senior CRS India leaders, along with Caritas India assistant executive director Father Varghese Mattamana, have reached the Kashmir valley to assess the speed of relief operations. "We are now working on long-term relief efforts," Father Vadakkumthala said.

Meanwhile, Churches' Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), the aid agency of the Protestant and Orthodox Churches in India, has tied up with eight local groups for relief efforts.

"Since we don't have any operations in Jammu and Kashmir, we have identified these partners, five of them secular NGOs," CASA director Sushant Agarwal told UCA News on Oct. 13 in New Delhi, where the agency is based.

Agarwal said the eight partners have already assisted 10,000 families, providing each of them with a kit that includes four blankets, four pieces of warm clothing and a tent.

The immediate focus is relief, Agarwal said. He added that one of the non-Church groups his agency also is coordinating with is the Army Wives Welfare Association, set up by wives of Indian Army officers.

Agarwal said CASA would open a small office in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, when they begin their long-term engagement. The state's summer capital, Srinagar, is located in the Kashmir valley.

Article Source: UCANEWS