Helping Pakistan: a Matter of Humanity
31.08.2010
Camp in Pakistan (2009)
© UNICEF Belgium
As you all know, the International Polar Foundation usually keeps to its mission. Yet, whether you feel concerned by the future of our Earth or not – and we all should – you cannot, as a human being, not be moved by the dramatic events that are currently striking Pakistan.
While I do not intend to overwhelm you with figures (they are on the front page of all newspapers worldwide), or spread misplaced catastrophism, I want to tell you that the amount of people struck by this horrible tragedy equals to the entire Belgian population.
Poor among the poor, all these people had was a patch of land that they cultivated all year around, or their little itinerant trade, a tiny stand at the local market. They had nothing much, but enough to sustain their household, and sometimes the neighbors’, a little something to make the children a bit happier. The water, thunderstorms and mudflows have swept it all away, and today, 15 million people – and thousands of children – have nothing left.
This is why I am asking you to react. Not only as an ambassador for Unicef or because I know the country particularly well for having been there multiple times, but because of human dignity. This dignity is what makes a human being care about other people’s fate and, when needed, show compassion
Today, economic and social perspectives in Pakistan look disastrous. The epidemics are looming in the countryside as well as in the cities and rebuilding the devastated areas depend on international funds, and therefore on all of us.
Let us all act for the planet. Let us help our Pakistani friends.
Alain Hubert
IPF Chairman of the Board
