Canadians Donate $46.8 Million for Pakistan Flood Relief

StarBuzz Weekly, Toronto-OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 15, 2010) - The Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, today announced that individual Canadians donated over $46.8 million for Pakistan flood relief and that the Government of Canada has put an equivalent amount into its Pakistan Flood Relief Fund.

"Once again, Canadians have demonstrated their compassion and generosity, and the government is proud to partner with them to help the victims of the floods in Pakistan," Minister Oda said. "Through the Pakistan Flood Relief Fund, Canada will continue to support the Pakistani people with emergency aid and early recovery efforts. Canada will assist those who are able to return to their homes as well as those who remain in camps."

The government had announced it would recognize the donations made by individual Canadians to eligible Canadian registered charities up to October 3. Registered charities had until October 18 to declare the amount of eligible donations they collected for Pakistan relief.

CIDA has already disbursed $19 million from the Pakistan Flood Relief Fund to support logistics and transport capacity of the overall humanitarian response and to deploy relief items from the CIDA stockpile (tents, jerrycans, tarps, hygiene kits, cooksets, and mosquito nets), aquatabs for water purification, and Canadian humanitarian experts to affected zones. Allocations from the fund have also been used to support agricultural early recovery activities to ensure that farmers can recover and plant during the critical wheat season currently underway. Further allocations from the Pakistan Flood Relief Fund will support ongoing humanitarian assistance, early recovery, and reconstruction efforts in Pakistan through projects undertaken by Canadian and international humanitarian and development organizations responding to the floods in Pakistan.