| Folk Delivering Hope |  In November 2009 I organised a fundraising concert to raise money towards the building of a health centre for a community of people left devastated by the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.
The concert featured Clive Gregson, Jez Lowe, Ray Hearne, Steve Womack and Gilmore Roberts who all volunteered their time and talents freely and enthusiastically. It was a wonderful concert that brought many good people together in the spirit of goodwill.
But more importantly it planted a seed, and from that Folk Delivering Hope has sprouted it’s first new shoot in the form of yet another fundraising concert to help the victims of the Kashmir earthquake. It is our hope that the seed planted in 2009 will grow and from that growth many more deserving causes will benefit in the future.
Musicians and poets are blessed with a talent for touching something very deep in each of us. The influence that musicians and songwriters have cannot be under estimated, they have the power to motivate change, to stir the emotions, to encourage us to care about others.
The next Folk Delivering Hope concert will take place on October the 10th 2010 at The Regent Hotel, Doncaster. Its purpose is to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the Kashmir earthquake and remind us all of the long term needs of communities that have been devastated by natural disasters.
Anthony John Clarke, Flossie Malavialle, Winter Wilson, Holly Taymar and American three part harmony band, Girlyman have agreed to support us; a big thank you to them and also to Hedley Jones and Allan Wilkinson for all their support and encouragement.
Readers may be wondering why not Haiti?
After the dust has settled...
It’s been a few weeks since we were all glued to our television screens horrified at the scenes of devastation in Haiti. The world watched helplessly whilst listening to the heartbreaking stories of death and survival. It responded generously to the pleas for donations from numerous charities around the world.
With the passing of time, new headlines are now emblazoned across our newspapers and television screens. Haiti has now been relegated to the inside pages, the search-and-rescue teams have left and the official search for survivors has now ended.
In a very short time, the horrific images will fade from the minds of the general public and most of us will go about our business just as before. But for the people of Haiti it will take many years to recover from the emotional, psychological and physical scars of the earthquake.
The Kashmir earthquake in 2005 followed much the same pattern. The response to the emergency was magnificent. There were urgent, immediate needs to be met and people the world over reacted, as always, with generosity. But soon, predictably and perhaps necessarily, the world’s attention turned to other emergencies, other problems…
And yet in Kashmir, as in Haiti, the survivors continue to cope with the longer-term consequences of the disaster.
In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, how do I ask for support for people who were similarly devastated more than four years ago?
My hope is that the recent news of Haiti will highlight the need for long-term support. Immediate relief is vital when disaster strikes. Its importance is paramount. And yet it is not sufficient. Haiti could remind us once again that short-term assistance cannot suffice when a country is decimated by such a cataclysm.
It’s only after the dust has settled that we can really see.
- Eileen Myles
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