Galway trio bring aid to Afghan refugee camp

Bob Geldof and Imelda Finnegan may not have too much in common, but both would share a passion for action to relieve terrible suffering. In Geldof's case, it was the Ethiopian famine of 1984-5 which spurred him into organising Live Aid. In Finnegan's case, it was the reports of the effect of war on Afghanistan.

Like the rock star, Ms Finnegan of Mountbellew in Co Galway couldn't sit by and watch, and wanted to get involved directly, rather than leave it to somebody else. "Of course the aid agencies were making their appeals, but somehow I wanted to do something active. I rang Concern but it was only interested in a financial donation. I wanted to do something more. And I knew that I would get a good response from people who felt similarly."

A mother of two children, Ms Finnegan has worked in administration in east Galway, but has no experience of overseas development. She engaged the assistance of two friends, brother and sister, Bernadette and P.J. Farrell. The Galway Afghanistan Appeal, as it was known, received donations from around the State. "One man arrived with a vanload of hospital supplies from Donegal."

The response was such that they were able to fill a 40-foot container with 15 palettes of antibiotics in two weeks.

Shortly before Christmas the trio felt they should ensure the donation reached its destination. With assistance from a Pakistani official, they arranged for the container to be shipped to Karachi and from there across the border to Quetta. They flew to Pakistan last month for what Ms Finnegan describes as a "nightmare".

Initially, they were told their container had not arrived, and they spent several days urging officials to do a recheck. "I had copies of all the papers," Imelda says. It took a protest by the three at Karachi port to have the consignment released.

"We flew to Quetta and were given the name of a contact, and again we had the same problem." They drove out of the city and eventually found the container on the side of the road.

"We kept diaries of the experience. It was like watching a movie, except that we were in it."

They escorted the container in, and then visited the campsites in Quetta where they witnessed terrible suffering.

"In one camp, Muhammed Khail, there were 300 to 400 families arriving daily. Babies were dying of dehydration, There is no doubt that medicines are needed, and there is a fear that another famine will start."

They also saw hardship and poverty in Pakistan and can understand why there were so many difficulties with the delivery. Ms Finnegan admits it may have been better to work with an established agency, but says they had made contact with the UN.

"We saw containers of aid that were just sitting there in Karachi." The Pakistani official, Mr Shaukat Ali Mukadam, told The Irish Times that Ms Finnegan's experience was not typical, and aid was getting through to Afghanistan.

"You can understand that officials are under an awful lot of pressure, as the workload has multiplied 20 times. Security has to be tight. We highly appreciate her endeavours, and all I can say is that next time it will be easier."

Mr Mukadam said that working through an experienced aid agency would be preferable, but all offers of assistance were valued greatly.

Mr Terence O'Malley, chairman of Support Afghanistan for Further Education, the only Irish agency whose sole focus has been Afghanistan, believes the approach must always be to work with local partners, and to consult with them on actual needs. Otherwise, much money can be spent on inappropriate goods.

The British organisation to which he is affiliated recently advised people who wanted to make individual gestures not to send a container without a specific request.