SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 25, 2005--A team of 30 Americans from across the nation, representing a Northwest firm, Alaska Structures, has spent Thanksgiving week in northern Pakistan, building shelters to house more than 1,000 homeless earthquake victims. The team also built hospitals and schools in areas where the need is critical.

This on-site building crew and the $2 million worth of shelters the team brought appears to be the largest single donation to date of goods and services from a privately held American company to the victims of the Oct. 8 earthquake.

"We brought and built housing. We built hospitals. While doing that, we had Pakistani people coming from distant villages, from other mountains, to ask if we could help them next," explained Richard Hotes, president and CEO of Alaska Structures.

"I challenge the global business community, particularly American executives, to step up," Hotes continued. "Adopt a mountain. Then get personally involved -- go to Pakistan -- to make certain that the people will survive this winter. There is no higher priority than avoiding further loss of life."

Family homes, schools, hospitals

Hotes donated the 142 insulated fabric structures -- a B-747 freighter full of materials -- which included two schools, two hospitals and more than 100 family living units, most of which were placed in the village of Puthian. The family units are insulated structures built upon a structural steel frame. Each has a wood floor that is carpeted, and sleeping cots. Residents of the area participated actively in the building process, which developed a cadre of Pakistanis experienced in assembling the shelters, who can then teach others as additional shelters arrive.

The Pakistani Association of Greater Seattle jointly planned the trip and sent team members. Its leaders hope this project will become a model for other communities across the U.S., to multiply the benefit to the Pakistani people.

One of the hospitals was built in the village of Bagh, in the remote Neelum Valley. The 40-bed hospital there is expected to serve a population of 100,000. Up to 300 patients will be served daily in its four insulated hospital wings. Housing structures for doctors and nurses were also built.

About three-quarters of the American team consists of women and men who work for Alaska Structures, from offices in Seattle; Las Cruces, New Mexico; Anchorage; Idaho and Maryland. The others are friends who share an interest in extending American hands-on assistance.

Logistics were coordinated by USAID and The Human Development Foundation of Pakistan.

The need for more assistance

The need is profound. Here are three measures of the humanitarian crisis:

-- To date, more than 74,000 people have died and, as the harsh
mountain winter approaches, many more are in dire need of
food, medical treatment and supplies, and adequate shelter
(source: Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy, Nov.
25).

-- Only if the level of aid to the population is kept up ...
could the 2.8 million to 3.2 million people without shelter
survive -- with difficulty -- the harsh winter weather (NATO,
Nov. 24).

-- More than three million people are homeless, and some 800,000
are still sleeping out in the open (Economist, Oct. 29).

Copyright Business Wire 2005

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