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ISLAMABAD, Oct. 15 (Xinhuanet) --
Children with bandages on their bodies, screaming and crying, cookies and toys
beside their pillows, doctors and nurses rushing to treat those wounded,
volunteers busy with offering help -- this is another busy day for Pakistani
people who are racing against time to save the children rescued from the
earthquake debris.
As the biggest hospital for children in Islamabad,
Children's Hospital of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences has admitted up to
730 children from the quake-stricken areas. As the number of patients is rising
everyday, the hospital's capacity is far from being enough.
"About 83 children have been discharged, and more
than 700 are still in the hospital among whom 70 to 80 percent need operations
soon. Due to limited space, we have to move some of the patients to other
hospitals, but it's still very crowded. Even today we have received more than
100 injured kids," Dr. Adnan said.
"Children have more possibility to survive than adult
since they can escape from death even there is only a small space, but most of
the kids were injured on the head, arms and legs," he added.
According to United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF), in the devastating 7.6-magnitude earthquake, tens of thousands of
children have been injured, and others are separated from the families, putting
them at risk. Nearly one fifth of the affected population are children under
five.
"I don't know where my father and mother are. I want
to go home," six-year-old Zanib said with bandage on her head.
Zanib is one of the nine children who survived the
earthquake but she couldn't find her family members. She was badly injured on
the head and she was sent to the hospital two days ago. Although she has
received operation successfully, food and toys on her bed,a female volunteer
accompanying her all the time, she still could not feel relaxed.
"We have many volunteers to help us take care of the
children both physically and mentally, but the children really need time topass
through this hard time," said Dr. Adnan.
"We are trying to find her parents, but before we
confirm the situation of her family, nobody can say she is an orphan or adopt
her from the hospital," he added.
The Pakistani government has banned the adoption of
orphans in order to prevent abuse and mistreatment of these children by certain
elements of the society.
Danish is a three-year-old boy who was injured on the
left leg, which is now wrapped with white bandage. His mother was sitting next
to his bed, holding a balloon to amuse him. Danish is crying and crying in pain
unless his mother put a candy in his mouth.
"Twelve of my relatives died in this earthquake, but
fortunately my son was just injured, and my husband and I are healthy. We got
everything here for free, living, food or operation. We are thankful for all the
people who donated for us affectees," said Danish's mother.
She complained that no relief team has arrived in the
area she lived in. "All the relief teams and supplies are in the city, but not
in the small villages. We know that it's because of traffic orroads, but the
relief work for outlying areas are really badly needed," she added.
The UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland
said Friday that rescue work was facing the difficulty of how to reach the
affectees in outlying areas.
"In the pipeline we have 10,000 tents and 100,000
blankets but it takes time to get them into these areas, and more aid is still
on the way," Egeland said.
Volunteers are everywhere in or out of the hospital.
Some of them are distributing donations for the patients, some are helping the
doctors to take care of the injured kids. All of them are working
round-the-clock.
Rahina, a 22-year-old girl who has been working as a
volunteer in the hospital for three days, said 90 percent of her classmates have
joined the relief work in different places as volunteers.
There is a big room in the first floor of the
hospital filled with food, water, clothes and toys donated by people from all
walks of life. And more donations are pouring in every day.
"Winter is coming, so food and blankets are very
important for the patients. We still need a lot for distribution, but we will
share some of the donations with other hospitals which also need them urgently.
Although time flies, we will overcome the hardship with support of all the
people," Tabassum said. Enditem |