AMMAN, 26 October 2005 — Jordan’s state television will hold a telethon Friday to raise funds for the victims of Pakistan’s massive earthquake, Religious Affairs Minister Abdel Salam Abbadi said yesterday.
State television will kick off the telethon after Friday prayers, Abbadi said in statements to Petra news agency, urging donors to be generous.
He said they were looking for financial aid as well as tents, blankets, foodstuff, medicine, medical equipment and new clothes.
The telethon will be organized by the Hashemite Charitable Organization at the request of King Abdallah, who visited Pakistan on Oct. 14 becoming the first head of state to travel to the quake-stricken country, Abbadi said.
Jordan was among the first countries to send aid to Pakistan in the aftermath of the deadly Oct. 8 earthquake that killed more than 53,000 people and left over three million people homeless.
Jordan sent two planes of relief goods to Pakistan along with a 25-bed mobile hospital with a 50-strong staff.
On Saturday, Saudi Arabia also launched a major drive that raised millions of dollars in donations for the earthquake survivors.
UN relief officials have pleaded for more international aid, warning that the shortfall in aid made the situation worse than after the Indian Ocean tsunami last year.
Donor nations are due to meet today in Switzerland.
Pakistan and the United Nations yesterday laid out the quake-hit country’s needs ahead of the donors meeting, as rescuers struggled to reach survivors before bad weather closes in.
Tens of thousands of people remain without adequate shelter and food more than two weeks after the disaster, despite repeated warnings by UN chiefs that the world has not done enough to help.
Donor nations will meet in Geneva where they will face fresh pleas to contribute tents, helicopters and relief cash before winter snows add to the death toll of more than 53,000.
“We will be trying to make sure the world understands the scope of the disaster, to really bring home how very serious it is,” UN spokeswoman Amanda Pitt said in Muzaffarabad.
She pointed out that only $90 million had so far been pledged toward the UN’s $312 million appeal for victims of the quake.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan — who is due to address today’s conference — is set to visit Pakistan in mid-November to keep the issue in the spotlight, another UN official said.
Pakistan needs help not only to care for survivors in the immediate future but also to meet the gargantuan costs of rebuilding an entire region that was flattened by the quake.
Losses are estimated at around $5 billion and the devastation is spread over a rugged area of about 28,000 square kilometers, a Pakistani Finance Ministry official said.
Salman Shah, presidential economics adviser, and State Minister for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar are due to lead the country’s appeal.
