Earlier this year, the world bore witness to the devastating earthquake in Haiti and quickly mobilized resources to mitigate the immediate crisis and clear the way for rebuilding. Particularly heartwarming was the response from individuals — nearly half of U.S. households made donations towards the relief and rebuilding efforts. What a message of support and solidarity!

Unfortunately aid has been much slower to go to Pakistan, both through official channels and from private donors. Relief efforts have been hampered by an already weak infrastructure. Currently many affected households are at risk for life-threatening diseases (diarrhea, cholera, and hepatitis) due in part to the lack of access to clean water, food, and other basic needs. Seventeen million people have been displaced (almost the population of the entire state of Florida!) and 8 million people are in urgent need of food and aid with relief organizations attempting to delivery supplies using everything from helicopters to mules. Many local NGOs involved in the response to the 2005 earthquake are now trying to apply the lessons learned. New partnerships are emerging to try to ensure that existing resources are used efficiently and to reach the maximum number of people.

I was able to visit Pakistan in March to see the state-of-the-art Indus hospital in Karachi. Having traveled to several African countries where public hospitals are often teaming with projects funded by other governments (the US and UK are two big players) and major universities, I was struck by how bare the “landscape” seemed here. While comparing overseas development assistance in the World Bank database, I found that in 2008 sub-Saharan countries received USD 49 per capita whereas Pakistan received USD 9 per capita (gross national income per capita, adjusting for purchasing power, is USD 1,950 and 2,590, respectively).

The specialty programs that have arisen are often largely funded and managed by wealthy Pakistanis themselves, at home and abroad. Indus was started by the same visionaries — physicians who, after working (and continuing to work) for many decades in the public sector, have decided to build a program that will “revolutionize the understanding of health delivery in Pakistan.” They are ambitious, bold, extremely bright, and relentlessly passionate about their work. And despite my initial anxieties about traveling to Pakistan as an American woman, they took me in with great warmth, infecting me with their energy and sense of hope about Pakistan’s future.

With this lens, it is difficult for me to read about the world’s slow and anemic response to the crisis Pakistan is facing and surely unable to handle on its own. I think that this is a moment for us to demonstrate that we want to be active participants in supporting Pakistan in a tragic moment and, at the risk of sounding trite, building a better, more harmonious future.

We came together during Haiti’s moment of need and I hope that we can do this again. Please consider making a donation, even a small one, now and/or in the coming months or years. The healing process and the rebuilding will be long and strenuous and require long-term commitment even as the stories fade from the front pages of the news.

I asked my colleagues in Pakistan for suggestions on where to direct donations and they provided the name of a relief organization that has no religious or political affiliations which they think is doing a really great job: The Citizens’ Foundation Relief.

Though I’ve not done extensive research I’ve heard of a few others which are listed, along with links to resources and discussions on these efforts, in the Disaster Relief page on GHDonline.org.

Last, Hilary Clinton is encouraging Americans to text “SWAT” to 50555 to make a USD 10 donation to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees My personal bias is that supporting local groups involved in the response has a higher return on investment and has positive benefits beyond direct aid, but that is another reasonable option.

Thanks for reading this and please feel free to forward to others and urge them to support relief efforts as well.

In solidarity.