World

Help Pours Into India

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 29, 2001 / 2:27 PM EST / CBS

Dr. Mihir Meghani came from Fremont, Calif. to India to attend the Kumbh Mela, the world's largest religious gathering, with his parents.

Instead, the emergency medical specialist is treating patients in a makeshift hospital camp in a town near the epicenter of India's biggest quake in 50 years.

Meghani is among an army of volunteers from the United States and around the world who have donated skills, resources and funds to help victims of the devastating earthquake.

"We have seen people who were found today from the rubble. We have seen people amputated here today, and people with fractures," he said.

When Meghani heard about the earthquake, he changed his travel plans, caught a plane and hitched some rides into the earthquake zone in western Gujarat state. Along with 45 volunteer Indian doctors and nurses, he is working to treat survivors who are being pulled from the wreckage of Bhuj.

Along with individuals like Meghani, various nations have pledged food and supplies along with financial assistance.

Helping Out

The following aid agencies are accepting contributions for assistance in India:

American Jewish World Service,
(800) 889-7146

American Red Cross,
(800) HELP-NOW

AmeriCares
(800) 486-4357

B'nai B'rith International,
(202) 857-6533

CARE,
(800) 521-CARE

Catholic Relief Services,
(800) 736-3467

Christian Children's Fund,
(800) SPONSOR

Church World Service,
(800) 297-1516 x222

Concern Worldwide,
(212) 557-8000

Northwest Medical Teams International,
(800) 959-4325

Salvation Army World Service,
(703) 684-5528

World Concern,
(800) 755-5022

World Vision,
(888) 56-CHILD

(AP)

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At a news conference Sunday, Indian Agriculture Minister Bhaskar Barua reiterated that it was the policy of his government, which stresses Indian self sufficiency, not to ask for foreign aid. But he said India was thankful for the foreign help it had been offered.

Barua said the International Committee of the Red Cross had offered thousands of blankets, the Swiss government had sent sniffer dogs and assistance was also being accepted from Russia, Germany and Turkey. Norway and China had offered monetary aid, and Taiwan was prepared o send rescue workers.

Japan offered to send 35 rescuers but they were being held up by bureaucratic delays in India, Shusaki Hirashima, a Foreign Ministry official, said in Tokyo. Japan pledged nearly $1 million in cash and supplies.

On Sunday, relief planes were landing every 10 minutes at Bhuj airport, where the terminal had been flattened but the runway survived.

Britain promised $14.6 million on Monday to fund emergency relief work. International Development Secretary Clare Short said a British search and rescue team was already working in Bhuj, and Britain was flying out tents, trauma equipment and plastic sheeting to the region.

Israel is sending medical teams and the equipment necessary to set up a 150-staff community hospital. Even longtime rival Pakistan is sending a planeload of tents and blankets.

The U.S. announced Sunday it would donate $5 million to the rescue efforts. A USAID official says an eight-person disaster response team and a plane loaded with plastic sheeting, blankets and water purification kits is due to arrive in India Monday, reports CBS News' Charles Wolfson.

Help has come from Gujaratis and other Indian-Americans across the U.S., many of whom were commemorating the 51st anniversary of India's constitution over the weekend:

In the Seattle area, high-tech executives are pledging thousands of dollars for the relief effort.

In Chicago, Prashant Shah, who publishes the India Tribune weekly, estimated fund-raising at $60,000 to $80,000 from among the 350,000 Indian-Americans of the Chicago area.

Groups in the San Francisco Bay Area said they were banding together in hopes of setting a precedent for a swift collective response to Indian disasters. "It's the survival element we want to focus on," said Mohan Trika of Indus Entrepreneurs, a nonprofit group based in Santa Clara, Calif., which is helping the effort to finance Indian purchases of blankets, medicine and bandages. Northern California is home to about 150,000 Indian-Americans, many of whom trace their families back to Gujarat.

An aid drive is on in the Gujarati community of Washington, where an organizer said the quake's location had tugged heartstrings. "We try to do the fund-raising for all states of India, but this time it (the earthquake) has hit the home state, so there
is more impact," Kirit Udeshi said.

In Atlanta, Horizon Bank, which caters to the 40,000 to 50,000 members of the Indian-American community, has raised more than $5,000 for its India Earthquake Relief Fund.

In Toronto, Canada, a group of Hindu temples raised more than $33,000 over the weekend and is shooting for $666,000.

For Meghani, helping with the quake relief in person upstaged the Kumbh Mela religious gathering.

"I was going to go and bathe in the Ganges," he said.

Hindu scriptures say that "to serve man is to serve God," Meghani added. "I thought I could do more by coing here."