$165 million pledged to quake victims

GENEVA – Countries have pledged some $165 million to aid the victims of the devastating weekend earthquake in South Asia, the United Nations said Thursday.

“We are in a hurry; we should all be in a hurry to rush assistance to victims,” said Yvette Stevens, an emergency relief coordinator of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “They should not be allowed to go through yet another traumatic experience.”

Stevens said the $165 million is the amount pledged to the disaster relief effort generally, not specifically committed to a U.N. appeal that was made earlier this week. The figure includes direct pledges to the affected countries, she said.

On Tuesday, the United Nations appealed to the international community for $272 million to provide emergency supplies such as tents, medical aid and helicopters for six months.

Stevens said the responses from donors at a meeting in Geneva on Thursday were “very positive.” Nevertheless, she cautioned that the U.N. never received the full amount of its pledge. “As history goes, we never get 100 percent.”