The 8th October 2005 was one of the worst disasters in the history of Pakistan. Official figures by the government of Pakistan state that over 73,000 people died and tens of thousands were injured in the northern areas of Pakistan as a result of this earthquake.

Pakistanis in general and the international community responded with great generosity to try and provide relief to the devastated people of Kashmir and NWFP.

The Petarian Foundation formed a joint venture with the Abdalian Association to mobilize its largest relief effort to date, and moved their people and resources to Bagh District in AJK. Our teams arrived at Bagh within 4 days of the disaster and set up camp at Rerah, a small trading village located around 10 Km beyond Bagh.

The Petarian Foundation / Abdalian Association teams scoured the mountainsides to survey the extent of disaster and to enumerate the level of destruction (deaths, injuries and damages to homes).  Based on this assessment, the foundation distributed tents, quilts, blankets, clothes and food rations to the affected population in the villages around Rerah. This activity continued for nearly a month, when the focus shifted towards rehabilitation of the uprooted people.

A control and command center was established at Islamabad to provide logistical support and supplies to our camp at Rerah, Bagh.

A second important activity during this period was to provide emergency medical assistance to the injured people. During the initial 4-6 weeks after the disaster, our camp had between 5-8 doctors on duty round the clock to cater to the wounds and other diseases.

A third important activity was to provide gifts to children of the earthquake refugees who were housed in thousands at the H-11 camp in Islamabad. Over 2,000 children were given new clothes to wear for the celebration of Eid, which took place barely 3 weeks after the earthquake.

During the initial period, we published frequent reports on our activities and the situation on the ground. Please click right click here to download these reports in PDF format.

Subsequently, the relief activities converged into the development of Sarbuland Village, which was managed by the Petarian Foundation for two and a half years.  Click here for more details on the Sarbuland Village Project