It was fateful Saturday October 8 2005, 9:20 am when an earthquake of magnitude of 7.4 shook two Kashmirs leaving the trail of death and destruction behind. Within minutes, thousands lost their lives, millions became shelter less and many more were crippled for life.

Though the impact of destruction was more on other side of LoC, which was the epicenter of the quake, north Kashmir’s Uri and Tanghdar tehsil bore the brunt on this side. At least 1000 people lost their lives and nearly one lakh were displaced by the killer tremors.

Greater Kashmir as a responsible media organization couldn’t have remained as a mute spectator in this hour of tragedy. Apart from reporting pain and anguish of victims, it also initiated relief and rehabilitation measures under GK Welfare Trust.

By October 15, 2005 the first consignment of relief material was send to Tangdhar. 15 employees of Greater Kashmir volunteered for the job of assessment and distribution in the affected areas.

The other teams of GKWT had also left with relief material to remote villages of Uri and by first week of November 2005, GKWT volunteers had trekked and distributed tents, blankets, food items, utensils, bedding, clothes, etc among the victims in remote areas of Uri and Tanghdar.

By November 2005, focus of GKWT shifted from relief to rehabilitation process. Two villages in Uri on Salamabad-Kamalkot road comprising of 115 families were adopted by the trust for long-term rehabilitation.

The focus then switched to getting families out of tents to temporary shelters as harsh winter was approaching fast. By the end of year, the trust provided them CGI sheets, plywood sheets, thermocol and other necessary items for construction of shelters.

To get the first hand account of the needs of the people, GKWT volunteers spent several nights in tents in these villages. On the basis of assessment the victims were provided necessary items.

Notwithstanding the odd weather conditions prevailing in this affected area in Uri, the GK Welfare Trust continued to attend to the needs of the quake-hit by distributing CGI sheets among 115 beneficiaries of Bagrato, Basgran (Gujjar Patti) and Upper Dachhii hamlets, some 112 kms from Srinagar.

GKWT team did spend Eid-ul Fitr and new year with the victims in the adopted villages.

The Trust offered Sadaqa by sacrificing 16 sheep at the quake-hit site in Bagroto on eve of Eid-ul-Zuha.

Since focus of was on relief and rehabilitation measures, education of children in these areas was ignored and GKWT as part of its intervention providing books, stationery, uniforms to students of primary and middle school in Bagroto, Basgran, Upper Dacchi.

At adopted village of Upper Dachhi, two additional teachers Zahida Bano and Javed Ahmad (at par with Rehbar-Taleemi pattern) were recruited for whom the salary was provided by the Trust.

Apart from intervention in quake-hit areas of Uri and Tangdhar, GKWT received number of SoS from victims of quake in Srinagar, Kupwara, Varmul and Tangmarg for whom the Trust intervened to help.

In Tanghdar tehsil, more than 3500 students in 30 schools were provided uniform, school bags, notebooks, geometry boxes, pens, pencils and other stationery items in two phases. In the first phase in August 2006, 12 schools were covered and in the last phase which lasted from November 21 to November 27, twenty schools were covered.

During the recent floods in south Kashmir, GKWT identified two families and provided timely cash relief in Arwani village of Bijbehara and Islamabad.

GKWT also sought to extend its voluntary work in other side of line of Control for which a team was deputed to Muzaffarabad for initial assessment of intervention. This GKWT team had a unique opportunity to visit those areas that were hit hard on October 8 along both sides of LoC.

At GKWT the belief in volunteerism is total with almost all staffers, including editors, reporters and other employees coming on the forefront to provide succor to the disaster hit.