Release Date: 09.02.10 | Location: All Metro Atlanta | Organization: CARE
CARE Urges Atlantans to Support Pakistan Flood Relief
500,000 pregnant women affected by disaster; CARE delivering prenatal and primary care.
WHEN: By appointment on Thursday, Sept. 2 and Friday, Sept. 3
WHERE: CARE headquarters, 151 Ellis Street, NE, Atlanta, GA
WHAT: Bob Laprade, CARE’s director of emergency & humanitarian assistance, and Dr. Helene Gayle, CARE’s president and CEO, are available for interviews. They can discuss CARE’s extensive Pakistan flood relief efforts with Atlanta media, illustrate the depth of the humanitarian crisis and describe its disproportionate effect on vulnerable women and children. CARE is urging residents of metro Atlanta to support the emergency relief mission in Pakistan, as they did following the earthquake in Haiti, at www.atlantacares.org. Photos and video are also available upon request.
WHY: Record-breaking rainfall in July and August triggered devastating flooding throughout Pakistan. It is Pakistan’s worst-ever humanitarian disaster and has affected more than 20,000,000 people. Five million have been rendered homeless by the flooding, and millions more are vulnerable to flood-related disease and food shortages.
The impact of the disaster has fallen disproportionately on women and children; including an estimated 500,000 pregnant women. Flood waters have destroyed more than 200 hospitals and clinics throughout Pakistan, leaving pregnant women in affected areas at high risk of medical complications and death.
CARE has deployed health teams throughout Pakistan. With its partners, CARE is providing direct primary and prenatal care, as well as training local birth assistants on safe child delivery practices.
More people have been affected by this disaster than by the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the 2005 South Asia earthquake, and the 2004 South Asia tsunami combined. Yet fundraising efforts for Pakistan flood relief have fallen far short of efforts for those events. CARE believes Atlantans will give more for disaster relief in Pakistan if they understand more about its scale and severity. They can support the effort by going to www.atlantacares.org.
ABOUT CARE: Founded in 1945, CARE is one of the world's largest humanitarian aid groups. Working side by side with poor people in 72 countries, CARE helps empower communities to address the greatest threats to their survival. Women are at the heart of CARE’s efforts to improve health, education and economic development because experience shows that a woman's achievements yield dramatic benefits for her entire family. CARE also is committed to providing lifesaving assistance during times of crisis, and helping rebuild safer, stronger communities afterward.
CONTACT: Brian Feagans, bfeagans@care.org, 404-979-9453 or 404-457-4644
Contact Info
Contact Name: Brian Feagans
Company: CARE
Phone: 404-979-9453
E-mail: bfeagans@care.org
