Humanitarian and aid organisations, including Christian and Muslim agencies, are responding rapidly to the awful earthquake centred on Islamabad and spreading throughout the region. Donations can be made via Christian Aid, among others. Some of the on-the-ground responses can be read at the Lahore metroblog and via Global Voices online. Comments Robin Greenwood: "South-east Afghanistan is a conflict zone. US forces are fighting Al Qaeda and Kashmir is an area of dispute, tension and military activity between the Pakistani and Indian forces. It is vital in both these areas that relief work takes precedence over conflict." Indeed. And while we are focussing on tragedy, let's not forget Hurricane Stan in Central America and the eruption of the Ilamatepec volcano in El Salvador. Or Malawi's hidden hunger (UNICEF appeal here), the worsening situation is Southern Africa, and the drought in Niger and the northern Sahel region. It all seems too much to bear at times...My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to caste my lot with those
who age by age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.
(from 'Natural Resources' by Adrienne Rich)
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