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  • Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association relief news update from Pakistan.

  • A series of massive floods, the most devastating in the nation's history, has claimed over

  • 1,600 lives with victims still missing. In all, the United Nations estimates that 17

  • million residents have been affected, of whom about five million are currently homeless.

  • More recent flooding in mid-August has worsened the situation in the nation's southern Sindh

  • province, where over 460,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed. As of Thursday, August

  • 26, nearly half a million people were instructed to evacuate as the Indus River continued rising.

  • Hazar Khan, Pakistani flood victim (m): We were given three hours to evacuate. I could

  • only take my family and children and left with nothing else.

  • Haleem Adil Sheikh, Secretary-General, Sindh, Pakistan (m): The impact is very dangerous.

  • Millions of children lost their houses, millions of children lost their parents. So many cities,

  • they are looking like a river now, an ocean. They were cities! Life is smashed in Pakistan.

  • VOICE: A month since the first serious floods, the victims have been in need of food, water,

  • shelter from the scorching heat, and medical attention, with millions of children and the

  • vulnerable at risk of waterborne diseases and heatstroke.

  • Conveying her sorrowful prayers for the Pakistani people, Supreme Master Ching Hai immediately

  • sent US$35,000 upon hearing of the initial disaster, requesting that our Association

  • members, including doctors and nurses, go to help. As the situation worsened, she donated

  • US$80,000 more in emergency aid, specifically requesting that sheltering tents be bought

  • for the most desperate such as children and the elderly. The combined US$115,000 could

  • purchase approximately US$2 million in urgent supplies in the United States, based on Pakistan's

  • cost of living.

  • Covering their own travel expenses of US$3,240, our Association's relief team from Formosa

  • (Taiwan), including one doctor, a nurse and dentist, have been assisting with diverse

  • needs since they arrived in the highly impacted Mithyani area of Sindh Province. A second

  • relief team from Indonesia also just arrived with more medical support and will focus on

  • assistin in another region.

  • SMTV Correspondent in Pakistan: We are in Mithyani of Sindh. It used to be a 40-village

  • area. But now, the flash flood washed away everything. As you can see, the village behind

  • me and the damaged houses - it's all gone. You can see half the mosque in the flood water.

  • We can feel how serious the flood was at that time.

  • VOICE: With the help of the Pakistan Red Crescent, the All Green Association in Sindh, and an

  • officer with the Taluka Municipal administration, the relief team assessed the area's needs

  • and purchased tents, along with medicine and basic food supplies. The medical team was

  • stationed at a government-owned school in Mithyani, where they have been treating approximately

  • 400 flood-affected persons who arrive each day. Many of the patients saw rapid improvements

  • to their conditions. Meanwhile, the relief team supplied rice, beans, salt and cooking

  • oil to a kitchen in Mithyani that had been set up by the government, where local volunteers

  • were thus able to prepare more nutritious traditional plant-based meals. Our Association's

  • relief team members helped distribute the food to waiting families along with SOS flyers

  • explaining the vegan solution to preventing climate-related disasters.

  • SMTV Correspondent in Pakistan: We are at the government's temporary kitchen. They are

  • cooking the food for the flood victims. They used the beans, rice and vegetables which

  • were donated by Supreme Master Ching Hai. Let's go to see the kitchen now. You can see

  • the food is done. There are beans, vegetables, and mushrooms in the pot.

  • Salam (Peace).

  • SMTV Correspondent in Pakistan: This is Supreme Master Television reporting from Pakistan.

  • VOICE: To the Pakistani government and officials, Pakistan's Red Crescent, and All Green Association

  • in Sindh, thank you for your dedicated efforts in bringing relief to the flood victims. We

  • are also grateful to Supreme Master Ching Hai for her attentive aid and to our Association's

  • relief team for their diligent service. Our prayers for the restorarion of Pakistan and

  • her people to safe, day-to-day lives, and that such events are eased as more people

  • join in considerate ways of living.�

Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association relief news update from Pakistan.

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