CERN united in generosity to help earthquake victims

On October 8^th of this year, the northern part of Pakistan was hit by a massive earthquake which resulted in one of the worst natural disasters in a century, leaving more than 75,000 dead, at least as many injured and at least 3 million people homeless, in a mountainous region where the winter season is very cold.

It would have been unthinkable for the CERN Community to remain indifferent to those events, firstly for general humanitarian reasons of course, and more specifically because it concerned some of our collaborators in the LHC project. Today, we can be proud of our response to the dramatic needs in Pakistan. Even if it seems rather small on the global scale of those needs, our contribution is significant, especially given the short period over which it was collected. We have been able to raise 56,032.50 CHF (as the UBS account is still open, some money was transferred after the official end of the campaign), which is not only well beyond our initial goal of 30,000 CHF but even beyond our redefined goal of 50,000.

The solidarity was spread across the whole spectrum of the community of people at CERN, from the top of the CERN Management to the users, from the workers from outside companies to the staff. CERN Community should be understood in a broad sense since, for instance, the Staff Association offered precious logistic help, the management and the staff of the three restaurants helped us set collection boxes at the various cash desks, as well as the French Post office on the Prévessin site.

Furthermore, as mentioned before, disasters can sometimes trigger miracles in human behaviour. For instance, one person transferred a whole month's salary to the Pakistani fund. Moreover, the collection was carried out by, among others, some of our Indian collaborators.

Given the short notice, it is comforting that the CERN Community was forthcoming in its generosity. This assistance will be very much appreciated by the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan, as confirmed by the message received from His Excellency Masood Khan, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Pakistan in Geneva. His Excellency expressed his profound gratitude for the campaign, which he said, reflected CERN's empathy for the people of Pakistan affected by the earthquake. He also conveyed the deepest appreciation for this humanitarian endeavour on behalf of the Government and the people of Pakistan.

CERN will also continue helping the affected population through UNOSAT, a United Nations initiative hosted by CERN to provide the humanitarian community with access to satellite imagery and Geographic Information System (GIS) services. UNOSAT uses CERN's IT infrastructure and Internet-access to provide precision satellite imagery and derived value-added products to the international and national humanitarian community at the earthquake site and in the area nearby.

Last week, a delegation of CERN scientists attended a physics workshop in Islamabad. They participated in a small ceremony where they described CERN's contribution to the relief effort and were briefed by Pakistani scientists from Quaid-e-Azam University and the National Centre of Physics on the relief activities being carried out by them. These are aimed at urgently providing construction material for emergency shelters in areas not yet reached by other humanitarian efforts, helping those most seriously exposed to the forthcoming winter's harshness. The delegation recommended the Staff Association to use the collected funds to support this effort. A complete report on the utilization of CERN's donation will be prepared.