When water and food are lacking or disease starts to spread, it is always the children who first feel the affects. On Sunday, local news outlets reported that five children had died of starvation in the northwestern region of Pakistan. Aid organizations fear that many more children could perish as a result of the flood catastrophe because of a lack of clean drinking water, medicine and vitamins.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he has seen many natural disasters around the world, "but nothing like this." Twenty million people have been affected by the flood, and as many as 1,600 have perished. Ban implored the international community to increase aid to the country during a visit to the flood-affected regions of Pakistan on Sunday. The UN says that several hundred billion dollars will be needed in order to rebuild the country.

But the volume of donations from private citizens in Germany has been lower than it has been for other tragedies in the past. Public broadcasting television stations ARD and ZDF, which have been known for hosting fundraising telethons in the past for natural disasters, have said they have no plans for televized donation drives this time. Meanwhile, charity organizations like German Agro Action (Welthungerhilfe) and UNICEF are reporting that private citizens have been hesitant in making donations. "The people (in Pakistan) have the feeling they have been abandoned," German Agro Action stated this week.

So far German individuals have only donated about €2 million ($2.56 million) to Pakistan flood relief efforts, estimates the German Central Institute for Social Issues (DZI). After the earthquake in Haiti in January, Germans donated a total of €200 million. UNICEF spokeswoman Helga Kuhn said she hoped that, "the more people learn about the scope of the catastrophe in Pakistan and how many children have been affected, the more they will be willing to help."

An 'Undeserved Image Problem'

In Germany, politicians have begun to appeal to people to show greater generosity. Ruprecht Polenz, a senior politician with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who is also chairman of the foreign affairs committee in parliament, told SPIEGEL ONLINE: "I am urgently pleading for donations to Pakistan." On his Facebook page, he has already issued pleas for donations. The politician said he had so far been met with two types of reactions: "Some fear their money will help extremists. Others say: If Pakistan would spend less money on its efforts to arm itself with nuclear weapons then it would have enough money to manage the catastrophe."

He said that Pakistan not only has an "undeserved image problem," but also that most of the millions of people affected by the flooding there have suffered under the extremists and that what they really want is peace. Pakistan has been accused in the past of tolerating terrorists inside its borders.

Ruprecht said that "without major international efforts," nothing can move forward in the relief effort. The politician also called on Germany's two leading public broadcasters to rethink their decisions not to host emergency relief telethons for Pakistan. He said television could be used as a medium with which to address people's concerns about Pakistan and that experts and aid organizations could provide answers. "This isn't about sponsoring the Pakistani government," he said.

But even as millions of people in Pakistan are hoping for donations from abroad, serious new allegations have been leveled against the Pakistani government in Islamabad. Britain's Daily Telegraph reported allegations  from "senior officials" that during the earthquake five years ago in northwestern Pakistan, around €367 million in aid money was embezzled. The officials claim that the money has since been diverted to other causes by the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, which has been in office since September 2008.

Too Little Empathy for Pakistan

But the issue at hand in Pakistan right now is not one of corrupt leadership, "this is about human lives," said Elke Hoff, a member of the business-friendly Free Democratic Party, the junior coalition partner in Merkel's government. The politician implored Germans to "make donations to Pakistan." She said destitution and hardship should not be an occasion for politicking. "The Pakistani people can't help it that extremists are attempting to destabilize the government's situation," she said. "A high willingness to donate could also help to improve the image of the West amongst the Pakistani people," Hoff told SPIEGEL ONLINE. She described the decision by ARD and ZDF not to hold telethons as highly regrettable.

Omid Nouripour, a member of the German parliament with the Green Party, described the disaster as "an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe," adding that it was high time more attention was paid to it. "So far, politicians but also a few NGOs have failed to do so," he said. "We need every cent because children in Pakistan are starving."

Meanwhile, Sebastian Edathy of the center-left, opposition Social Democrats, warned: "We cannot punish the entire population because there are radical organizations in Pakistan. We need to help secure (the people's) livelihoods." Edathy told SPIEGEL ONLINE that too little empathy had been shown to Pakistan so far.

Expanding Aid Efforts

The appeals in the German capital of Berlin on Monday have been emphatic, but politicians here were still slow to move. Despite the fact that the rains and flooding have continued for weeks in Pakistan, with water levels on rivers rising dramatically, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government first issued a comprehensive statement on Monday. Government Steffan Seibert said that the chancellor was very concerned about the situation in the country. He said Germany's relief contribution would be increased to €15 million.

Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that extensive European aid should be provided for the victims, and he also appealed on the European Union on Sunday to establish a rapid reaction force for natural disasters such as earthquakes, wildfires and floods. He also offered logistical support with French ships and aircraft, to deliver relief aid to affected regions.