September 2nd, 2010  - by Najam

PIR SABAK (Risalpur): The wife of Turkish Prime Minister Thursday assured the flood affected people of Pakistan all support of her countrymen in helping rebuild their homes and livelihoods.  Emine Erdogan, the wife of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited a relief camp here at the Pir Sabak village near Risalpur, along with Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and First Lady Fauzia Gilani, said the people of Turkey can feel the pain and losses of their Pakistani brethren.

Emine Erdogan accompanied by a large number of Turkish business and civil society women is in Pakistan to present donations raised at a charity dinner in Istanbul, for those affected by the floods, the worst in the region since 1929.  The Prime Minister and the visiting dignitary went around the camp, currently housing over 200 families and being run by the Turkish Red Crescent Society, with the help of Pakistani volunteers. Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Amir Haider Khan Hoti and Economic Affairs minister Hina Rabbani Khar also accompanied them.  The camp has 100 single container rooms with two bunk beds each for four people, and has the facilities of electricity connections, a school, toilets and medical facilities.
They visited a school set up under the Psycho Social Support Program to cater to the young students traumatized by the floods. At a vocational centre set up at the camp, Emine Erdogan gave away sewing machines to the women and gifts to the children.  Begum Fauzia Gilani wept as she saw the condition of women and children at the camp.  The village was inundated by the raging waters of the Kabul river with most of the houses under 5 to 30 feet of water as the villagers took refuge on a nearby hill for four days, before help could reach them.
The floods have affected, over 20 million people, damaged crop area over 1.38 million acres, destroyed 1.2 million homes rendering over 7.5 million people displaced leading to the largest migration since partition.  Prime Minister Gilani informed the Turkish first lady about the measures being taken by the government to mitigate the  sufferings of the people. He said the entire government machinery has been mobilised to help the displaced people. He said the region earlier witnessed lots of sufferings due to the ongoing war on terror.  Emine Erdogan and the Turkish Businesswomen’s Association had collected the donations at an iftar dinner to raise funds to contribute to the Pakistan flood-relief effort, as the floods destroyed hundreds of health facilities, schools, bridges and  roads.
Turkey has collected over 9 million Turkish Liras in an aid campaign, besides US $338,527 and 361,995 Euros in three separate bank accounts opened under a directive from the Turkish prime minister.  The United Nations has said that more than 3.5 million children were at risk from water borne diseases, while skin diseases, respiratory infections and malnutrition were spreading in the flood affected areas.

Source: News Agencies