Vern's climb to raise awareness!
Vern’s leaving to climb Mount Kilimanjaro on November 13th to raise awareness and funds for the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan. As this is not a trivial effort, and there is a certain degree of danger involved, this is a fitting way to bring some coverage to this important and tragic event.
To date, over 80,000 people have died, but many more people are now without shelter or an adequate distribution system for relief supplies. In fact, over 3,000,000 survivors are entering the winter without shelter or enough food. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people have not yet been reached by aide workers.
In the coming weeks, many more people will be dying from exposure. This tragic story, which is still unfolding, isn’t receiving the needed news coverage. The biggest problem is that this relief effort is significantly under-funded. For example, helicopters are unable to fly to their maximum capacity because of extreme fuel shortages due to lack of funds.
The UN has stated that the “world must wake up to this crisis“, or it’s going to become far, far worse. Vern’s hoping that his climb will contribute to the awareness of these people’s plight. These suffering people need your help. Even a small contribution can go a long way to help a few people with much needed shelter and provisions.
To help, please do one of the following:
[_] Contribute $10 or more to the Pakistan Earthquake Relief Fund
— Click here to donate through clubZone.com
[_] Contribute to your favorite charity that is helping with this effort.
— Oxfam
— Care
— Unicef
— Red Cross
(If you go this route, please email Vern, so he can keep track of his total funds raised)
[_] If you are unable to contribute then please call, chat to, or email 5 people to let them know about this cause.
Thank you all for your help. Your efforts will go a long way to creating warmth and comfort for those who need you now. If you know Vern personally, he (and I) would appreciate an extra effort promoting this to push him along when he’s at 5,500 metres, and still has another 395 to go.
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Yeah!!! Awesome!!
Thanks Tanya!!!
That is quite the adventure…I don’t know Vern but I’m moved by his self sacrifice to help others. Thanks for the info and link T, I just donated to the Earthquake fund.
You’ve actually touched on a topic I am quite critical of.
The SE Asia Tsunami touched many lives and many funds were raised b/c in the Western world we saw many white tourists in danger and somehow it was easier for the Western world to find it more relevant and to identify w/the crisis. They saw people like themselves in danger. They saw places they had visited devastated.
This Pakistani earthquake, we see people w/whom we can;t identify because they are dressed differently, look different from us, there are no white tourists in danger, nor is this a place we have traveled and vacationed to. Hence it doesn’t touch our lives with as strong relevance or strong identification as the SE Asia tsunami.
That is one of the reasons why we haven’t seen a significant coverage in the media and why it is sliding off the relief efforts picture, just like the mudslides and devastated, destroyed and sunken villages in Guatemala and El Salvador due to hurricane Stan.
I am very pleased to learn you and your friend are participating in relief efforts. I wish him the best and safe mountain climbing experience.
I just noticed, those guys at clubzone are charging a 30 cent service fee for doing this donatino thing.. are they going to donate that 30 cents??
They may… It’s their standard small fee to cover credit card processing. (All of the relief efforts will be taking a small fee off the top to cover credit card charges — You are just seeing it directly with ClubZone.) Vern will be given the funds close to his trip date, and at that time, he’ll forward all the monies on to one or more of the relief efforts.
that is one cool dude! good luck to him!
michele sent me today.