KARACHI, October 18, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Pakistani charities are rushing to join a humanitarian battle to cater for thousands of children orphaned by the massive quake that his the country last week.

"The Edhi Foundation that has orphanages in the capital city Islamabad and North West Frontier Province capital Peshawar will build an orphanage in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) capital Muzaffarabad where they will be providing food, shelter, clothing and education to the orphans," Anwar Kazmi, the media officer, told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, October 18.

"Initially the orphanage will be in tented accommodation but later on it will be given a permanent shape," he said.

While still pondering how exactly to raise an entire orphaned, the Pakistani government ruled out adoption as an option.

"Adoption of these children is completely banned," Aziz said Sunday, October 16, when he visited injured youngsters at Islamabad's Poly Clinic hospital.

Officials estimate more than 53,000 people died in the 7.6-magnitude quake that flattened swathes of northeast Pakistan a week ago, the worst catastrophe in the country's history.

Chief military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said the number of orphans could run into the thousands.

The desire to help orphans in the true spirit of Islam is not confined to the Edhi Foundation.

Shahid Mahmood, in charge of the medical mission of Jamat' ud Dawa Pakistan, said the charity has decided to use one of its huge projects in Rawalpindi for the settlement of orphans.

"We are vying to build a 600-room University of Islamic Studies on a 14-acre land in Rawalpindi and have decided to construct a portion for the orphans," he told IOL.

"The construction is underway and 400 children are already living there while a mosque and a hospital have already been built there."

Dr. Zakiuddin Ahmed, an official of Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, said two blocks of Rifa University, Islamabad, have been booked for the quake orphans.

He said about 1,000 orphans will be accommodated there and offered food, shelter and education.

Shah Wali, information officer at the Alamgir Welfare Trust said his organization was trying to rehabilitate the adults "because adults can take care of the children in a better way."

But he pointed out that Edhi Foundation and six or seven local organizations of the AJK were already endeavoring for the settlement of orphan children.

A Kashmiri girl wounded in the quake arrives at military base in Rawalpindi. (Reuters)

NGOs, though have a lesser role at the moment for the settlement of orphaned children, are keen to help through cooperating with the government.

"Presently the orphan children are being kept in the crisis management centers established by the ministry of women's development with whom the NGOs are coordinating," said Anees Haroon, executive director of Aurat Foundation, a leading Pakistani NGO.

"Sadly enough the members of national and provincial assemblies have not rose to the occasion but it is our endeavor to activate them in this moment of grief and tragedy," she said.

Some academics are not fully satisfied with the government efforts for the rehabilitation of children and find it essential that UN agencies intervene and play a vital role in this regard.

"The United Nations must play a constructive role in order to rehabilitate orphan children of Kashmir under the supervision of UNHCR because the states in South Asia have their own problems and the chances are when the entire issue settles down, nobody will bother to take care of these children," Muthahir Ahmed, a professor of international relations at the University of Karachi, told IOL.

"The international community in general and UN agencies in particular, with the help of credible NGOs, must play their role."

Sami Malik, UNICEF communications officer, told IOL that his organization has an ongoing program for the protection of children and is fully supporting the endeavors of the government to rehabilitate the orphaned children.

UNICEF has expressed concern over reports quake children are being taken from health facilities by individuals or NGOs claiming to be able to care for them.

"We're grateful the community has been vigilant in bringing such potential cases to our attention in which a child's vulnerability, confusion and isolation might be taken advantage of," UNICEF spokeswoman Julia Spry-Leverton said Monday.

Although many people were acting with the best of intentions towards children displaced by the quake, there was also the potential for children to fall into the hands of unscrupulous individuals or groups, the children's agency warned.

UNICEF was vigorously encouraging the registration of all children upon their admission to a public or private hospital, the agency said in a statement.

It said children should not be discharged unless in the company of bona fide family members.

The UN agency also asked the Pakistan government to place child protection officers at all major hospitals admitting children.

A similar situation emerged after last year's tsunami tragedy in Muslim-majority Indonesia, which imposed restrictions on adoption amid fears that Christian groups would raise the children.

The Washington Post reported in January that a US missionary group planned to Christianize 300 Muslim children from the Indonesian province of Aceh.

Virginia-based WorldHelp raised money among evangelical Christians by presenting the tsunami as a rare opportunity to make converts in hard-to-reach areas.

Also read:

• Investing Endowment Money to Help orphans

• Muslims’ Role in Caring for Tsunami orphans