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John Hollenhorst ReportingOutdoors, athletes and businesses held a fundraiser in Salt Lake tonight. They're trying to raise consciousness about a human tragedy in Asia that many Americans have forgotten, a giant earthquake that left millions of people homeless.
The event was put together by participants in the Outdoor Retailers show. Many are climbers who have a close personal relationship with the Himalayan mountain region where a quake in October killed almost 80,000 people. Despite the stunning human toll, it is, in some respects, the forgotten catastrophe of 2005.
The overwhelming devastation on the India-Pakistan border created what's been called the most challenging relief effort in history. Millions homeless in an area that has brutal winters.
At the Salt Lake fund-raiser, freelance photographer Ace Kvale showed off some of the faces of disaster. He photographed a people fighting for survival.
Ace Kvale, Freelance Photographer: "And I was seeing so much desperation, devastation every day, that I got a little closed to it emotionally. And all I did was concentrate on my work of bringing back imagery to create awareness."
Kvale and a team of athletes associated with The North Face outdoors company spent a month in Kashmir handing out winter equipment.
Ace Kvale: "Trying to bring in insulation, stoves, food, down jackets, But it's a pretty bleak situation."
Willie Beneas, Mt. Everest Climbing Guide: "You know these families have been destroyed drastically."
Argentine climber Willie Benegas is now a Salt Lake resident. He feels close to the quake victims. He's been in the area many times over the years, guiding five expeditions to the top of Mount Everest. Now that winter has set in, he says people are suffering.
Willie Benegas: "It was the coldest temperature they have in the last 70 years. Q: And many people are living outside? A: Oh yeah, man, they lost everything."
He says many survivors are jammed into inadequate tents.
Willie Benegas: "Ten feet by 10 feet, they pack in ten people, plus the cow and the goat."
They say Americans haven't paid enough attention or contributed enough. It may be a case of donor fatigue after a series of disasters from the Tsunami to New Orleans. Meanwhile, South Asia is forgotten.
Ace Kvale: "It snowed eight feet since we've been there. So now it's full winter, a lot of villages are closed off. And they're just going to be left to their own resources and thousands more could perish this winter."
Another sponsor of tonight's event is Outdoors Magazine, working with an Internet charity called Global Giving. Many other organizations are raising money for the relief effort. We've included a link to some charities at the top right of this story.
