TENTS FOR PAKISTAN 2005 EARTHQUAKE

Update 18th Nov 2005

Each box in the back of the truck contains 2 tents. The photos were taken a few weeks ago as the tents made it slowly into the Alai region of Pakistan.

A view down into the valley the destination for this batch of tents.

Update 5th March 2006
The news services have moved on to other world events and of course we are back at work and our daily lives. The people of Pakistan Hill country are getting by through the winter and aid agencies have arrived, but it will take a long time for life to return to something like it was. We are thankful we contributed. For those who want to track what is happening simply type some key words into Google.
We are hoping to work on a longer term solution. More as we get it organised in the future
Watch this site for updates on what we can organize.
Update 8th Nov 2005
To all of those who are still contacting us. Our project to supply tents from Australia has ceased. We sent 1060 (see details below) but freight is simply not possible for anymore for large numbers in the short term.
In the last few weeks we have spoken to many people from Aid Agencies and people in Pakistan and we hope to either get some tents made there or organize funds to build shelter from local materials.
Watch this site for updates on what we can organize.
Update letter 28th Oct 2005
This is an open letter to all who supported us. The form of the letter is a diary of the events that led a small group of people to take an idea and turn it into a reality within a week; a reality that will make the lives of many so much better during the northern winter of 2005. An earthquake shook the foothills of the Himalayas destroying all these disparate villages had, there survival will depend upon how quickly aid and assistance gets to them before winter sets in. Our decision to send tents is providing them with one of the things they need the most. We used the resources available through the camping industry and the radio media in Australia. The number of tents we could send was limited by our ability to access free freight, QANTAS and PIA were very generous but to send more would have required dedicated freight aircraft which were outside of our ability this time.

On Tuesday the 11th of October a friend rang me, (on a very scratchy faint mobile line when I was on the road near Toowoomba). Chai was talking about wanting some tents to buy and send to Pakistan. How could she get them? Would I help? My first thought was probably like everyone else “Good Idea, but how will you get them there”? She said “That’s what I can do”, and so I said “okay”. Four days later we had 1000 tents, 14 tons on pallets, in the air on a QANTAS jet on their way to the earthquake region of Pakistan. On Monday the 17th we sent another 60 tents to balance up the number of tents we had “sold”.

The idea to sell tents from our shop, (rather than the customer taking them away), was incredibly successful. People throughout Australia as well as US, Ireland and New Zealand phoned in and bought tents. Local people hearing about it came into the shop to buy tents and one of the local shops, “Santos Health Foods”, a community owned business, purchased 45 tents. The desire to do something tangible and practical was the thing we assume that caught the imagination of all of you who contributed.

How did we do it?

Chai and Phil watched the news on Monday night and saw how the people of the Pakistan earthquake didn’t even have a tent to take shelter in after the earthquake. There was a notice after the news for anyone wanting to send blankets etc. to phone the Pakistan Australia Association . The following day Chai and her Friend Anna were having a coffee in Byron Bay discussing years past when they trekked in the Himalayas in a similar terrain, and how must it be for the villagers after the earthquake without even a tent to crawl in to. Phil, Chai and Anna tried to find the SBS contact and were unable to do so, so they decided to do something themselves. That was Tuesday when Chai phoned me on my mobile.

Wednesday morning the 12th. QANTAS had been contacted and they said they might agree to carry the tents to Bangkok (no mention of numbers at that stage), Pakistan Air (PIA) said that they would carry them from Bangkok to Islamabad. Local radio Bay FM had been contacted as well as the Lismore Echo paper. Emails hit the Internet. Many phone calls were being made throughout Wednesday to sort issues we did not know existed. (Labels, permissions, “You have to speak to someone else in another department”.) On Wednesday most of the calls were being made by us, we were getting the information out. Anna was busy getting information out on the internet. We had only sold 30 tents.

Thursday 13th. The morning was quiet before 9am. Chai did an interview with Steve Austin on ABC Radio, TV Channels 7 and 9 turned up at the shop, FM Coast Radio and four Tasmanian community radio stations were getting the word out. Information on the Internet was on the move. It was 9am and the phones started ringing, and our team was in chaos. We did not expect such a huge response. Only two lines into the shop and both were going hot! I was unable to call out, fax or use our EFTPOS. We started at 5.30am and left the shop around 11pm. By mid morning Friday we knew that 1000 tents were going to be sold so we rang the wholesalers Oztrail and said send the tents to Sydney. They agreed to pay the freight costs for that leg of the journey. We stopped selling tents a little after lunch. It was time to add it all up. The Pakistani community from Brisbane and Cairns had heard of us and rang and said that they wanted to buy all the tents we had left for sale. We said yes, they bought 65! After the sums were done we had sold 1060 so on Monday morning we got another 60 tents that came from Outdoor Connection, they also paid the freight costs to Sydney for these two pallets. (We balanced out the numbers allowing a few sales during the next week).

Fred Hollows Foundation contacted us and pleaded to receive and distribute the tents in the Hazar and Kashmir regions of Pakistan. They said that they were some of the first medical teams in the remotest parts and that our tents would go there. We all like that idea and felt that all of you who bought tents would be happy with that too, so we agreed. All the tents have now arrived in Pakistan. We have asked a member of ICARE (Islamic Community Australia) in Brisbane who is going over to Pakistan, to photograph and relay stories of the tents so that we can get this news back to you.

We will update ongoing information on our shop website www.cottonsoft.com.au/bbcamping , there is a link on the first page “Tents for Pakistan 2005.” Please keep in touch. You can contact us via
Phone Anna 0439722940 or email annacrotty@yahoo.com.au
Phone Chai 0401381949 or email paddemelon@hotmail.com

Thank you from the team who put this together, the rewards outweigh the time and effort simply because of the generosity, kind words and support given by all of you who phoned, emailed and spoke to us:

Chai Hicks, Barbara Neville John & Andrew Maloney, Anna & Skye Crotty, Phil Sleeman, Alan & Sue Bainsbridge.

Tom Giblin, Sandy McCutcheon and Steve Austin from the ABC were excellent advisors and information facilitators.

(Never under estimate the power of Radio!)

Write to us:

neville@cottonsoft.com.au

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