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Our Governor Marilyn Mercer
with her husband Dudley

Our Governors

Very Special Appeal - Shelterbox Australia

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Our District Governor Marilyn:
Assistance is urgently needed. Full cost of a Shelterbox is AU$ 1000 but any donation will be appreciated and will be combined with others to complete the cost.
Please contact District Shelterbox rep. Tom or Peter for more information

UN chief:
Never seen anything like Pakistan floods

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, yesterday, he has never seen anything like the flood disaster in Pakistan
after surveying the devastation and urged foreign donors to speed up assistance to the 20 million people affected.

"This has been a heart-wrenching day for me," Ban said after flying over the hard-hit areas with President Asif Ali Zardari.

"I will never forget the destruction and suffering I have witnessed today. In the past I have witnessed
many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like this."

Ban visited Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country in May 2008, killing an estimated 138,000 people.
He also flew to China's Sichuan province just days after an earthquake killed nearly 90,000 people in March 2008.

The floods that began more than two weeks ago in Pakistan's mountainous northwest have now hit about one-quarter of the country.

While the death toll of 1,500 is relatively small, the scale of the flooding and number of people whose lives
have been disrupted is staggering. Aid workers have warned that diseases could raise that toll as the first case of cholera has been identified.

Agriculture has been severely hit, with an estimated 1.7 million acres (nearly 700,000 hectares) of farmland wiped out.
Once the floods recede, billions more will be needed for reconstruction and getting people back to work in the already-poor nation
of 170 million people. "Waves of flood must be met with waves of support from the world," said Ban.

"I'm here to urge the world to step up assistance," he said.

» 2010 Pakistan floods - From Wikipedia