NORTHERN PAKISTAN (ABP) — Despite early positive hints of life beneath the ruins of schools in northern Pakistan, no survivors were found by the search-and-rescue team from Hungarian Baptist Aid, which arrived in the region two days after the Oct. 8 earthquake.
However, the team's doctors and paramedics attended to almost 400 casualties during their first five days on the scene. As the rescue and recovery work continued, hundreds of victims who had been without food came down from mountain villages carrying the injured with them.
The earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale affected large areas in northern Pakistan and a smaller area of India. International experts and government authorities say the earthquake left as many as 3 million people homeless.
The Hungarian rescue team — two medical doctors, two paramedics, two technical-rescue experts, two rescue dogs, a rescue commander and a coordinator — helped search three school buildings and remove several bodies from the ruins. All the team members participated in distributing aid and helped guide helicopters to places of need.
“No country would have been able to cope with the difficulties caused by the earthquake,” said Hungarian Baptist Aid's rescue commander, Laszlo Pavelcze. “This was just too great to deal with in an organized manner.”
Two other Baptist relief teams later arrived to join the Hungarian volunteers.
One was a team of North Carolina Baptists who previously had trained with the Hungary workers. The team was accompanied by two doctors and two additional relief workers from Hungary. They focused on providing medical care, assessing ways for Baptists to assist further, and purchasing and distributing $20,000 worth of tents, blankets, food, medicines and medical equipment.
The third team, which included the disaster-relief director for Virginia Baptists, planned to use another $30,000 to establish a camp in Bagh to ensure the survival of earthquake victims during the coming cold months.
“Winter is coming and we need to rush to help,” said Pavelcze.
“There are over 3 million people who lost their homes,” warned Attila Szilagyi, senior relief officer of Hungarian Baptist Aid. “They live in tents provided by the international community or still in the open air in the freezing cold in the mountainous areas. Baptists want to share in helping the needy victims of this earthquake. We plan to set up a camp with at least 200 tents for some 1,200-1,500 people.”
Sandor Szenczy, Hungarian Baptist Aid's president, added: “By our rescue efforts and technical resources, by providing medical care and humanitarian aid, and by organizing a team of Baptists from North Carolina, Virginia and Hungary, we believe BWAid Rescue24 is on the road to be an effective first-responders group.”
The work of the one-of-a-kind Hungarian team is coordinated through Baptist World Aid, the relief arm of the Baptist World Alliance. BWA is supporting the earthquake relief effort with an initial $40,000 grant to Hungarian Baptist Aid.
“The search-and-rescue teams have left, but our people are still there trying to provide tents, blankets, food, water and medicine,” said Paul Montacute, director of Baptist World Aid, who urged Baptists to support BWAid's earthquake relief fund.
— Based on information from David Gal of Hungarian Baptist Aid and Paul Montacute of Baptist World Aid.