UK community prays for quake victims

Waiting for news inside one of London's Hindu temples

By Douglas Herbert, CNN.com Europe writer

LONDON, England (CNN) -- At a Hindu temple in north-west London, the appetite for news of Friday's cataclysmic earthquake in India verges on the insatiable.

To hundreds of Indians living near the Shree Swaminarayan Temple, the juddering of the earth in Gujarat state opened a chasm of uncertainty about the fate of friends and loved ones in hard-to-contact stricken areas.

Some who have attended nightly prayer sessions at the temple have relatives they have not heard from.

For others, simply knowing that legions of their compatriots are suffering is reason enough for prayer.

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But for many mounting an anxious vigil, satellite images of the frantic salvage efforts on the other side of the world have failed to answer the most pertinent question.

"Most Gujaratis if not all Gujaratis will know somebody or is related to somebody that is affected by this disaster," said Girish Patel, who had come to the mission this weekend.

There are nearly a million people from India currently living in Britain. Together with several hundred thousand Pakistani and Bangladeshi residents, they comprise about 3 percent of the country's total population of just under 60 million.

Gujaratis are especially well represented at the Shree Swaminarayan Temple, said to be the largest Hindu temple outside of India.

Last year, the temple celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary Jubilee, though the current edifice -- a brick-coloured building that melds traditional Hindu and English architectural styles -- replaced an earlier structure.

In the quake's grisly aftermath, the temple has launched appeals -- one of many by religious and civic organisations throughout Britain -- for assistance to quake victims.

The money collected, to be sure, is just a fraction of the estimated £10 million ($14.6 million) in emergency aid being donated by the British government. London also sent a team of 69 search-and rescue workers this weekend to Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat state, near the quake's epicentre.

The money collected will be used for food, shelter and medical supplies. For each British pound ($1.46), milk powder can be provided for a week for one child.

Cash has been flooding in to help the Gujarati victims

CARE International UK, one of several relief agencies that underestimated the initial impact of the quake, has since swung into full gear as it scrambles to provide food and shelter to thousands displaced.

"We are moving from a phase now where the search and rescue is coming to and end," said CARE spokesman Antony Robbins.

Robbins added: "It is not winding down. We will continue searching until we are absolutely convinced there is no one left alive."

In the next few days, Robbins said, CARE plans to send 105 tonnes of ready meals to the region, enough to sustain 20,000 people for five days.

The agency is also dispatching a "survival kit", at a cost of about £11 ($16) per kit, that includes 10 water purification tablets, a 10-litre plastic container, blankets, a lantern and a ground mat.

To aid in the distribution of its aid donations, the temple, for its part, dispatched a team of 20 volunteers on Monday morning to the scene of the disaster.

"They got together whatever sort of help there was -- blankets, bed sheets" and clothes, said Bharat Patel, a church member.

Temple members are also hoping the team will bring back first hand news about missing relatives - information that has been nearly impossible to gather amid a widespread breakdown in the local communications grid in devastated areas.

A one thousand line emergency telephone exchange is being set up in Bhuj, at the epicentre, but local officials warn that restoring full communications with the world beyond could take weeks if not months.

CNN London bureau chief Tom Mintier contributed to this report.

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Shree Swaminarayan Temple (Willesden, London)
CARE
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

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