British charities and Pakistani diaspora groups have raised at least £1m after devastating floods in the south Asian country have killed more than 1,000 people, and affected about 30 million.
Pakistan is the eighth most at-risk country globally from the impacts of climate change. In the last decade, it has suffered an estimated $18bn in damages due to disasters, including the deadliest floods in the country’s history in 2010, which left more than 2,000 people dead and millions homeless.
Now as people struggle once again to access necessities such as food and medical care, Pakistan’s government has appealed for financial help from international donors and aid agencies.
Aleena Khan, a Pakistani living in London who has family living in north-western Pakistan, where flooding from the Swat River has affected tens of thousands of people, began fundraising on Instagram.
“The devastation is just unimaginable,” Khan said. “The entire infrastructure of roads, bridges, has collapsed. There’s people literally of all ages, genders, people in all their diversity, that are being swallowed by water.”
Early on when international charities were not reaching far-flung areas in Pakistan, Khan planned to raise funds to send to her family still in a flood-stricken area of Swat, so that they could work on relief efforts directly or pass them on to organisations working in Pakistan.
What started as a small appeal on Instagram aimed at friends and family exploded into donations pouring in from all over the world.
“We have had an overwhelming response,” Khan said, her voice heavy with emotion. “Literally just over this weekend, we’ve collected over £7,000 [in the UK].
“We’re receiving donations from Australia, America, the UK, [and from] across Europe,” Khan added. “It’s really touching how people trust us.”
The donations have gone on to support volunteer-led efforts with Pakistan’s Red Crescent Society, who have distributed food rations, menstrual hygiene kits, water, and bedding in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa’s DI Khan district.
British Muslims (43% who are of Pakistani origin) reported to be among the most charitable in the country and British Muslim charities have began raising funds for emergency relief.
Mariam Kadodia, the national fundraising manager for Islamic Relief, confirmed that the charity had raised at least £700,000.
“There’s a significant diaspora community in the UK. They feel it because it’s their country, it’s their ancestors’ country and they want to respond,” Kadodia said, adding the wider British Muslim community had also been donating.
Yasrab Shah, the director of fundraising for another British charity, Muslim Hands, confirmed the charity had raised at least £200,000 in emergency relief funds. Other charities including Khalsa Aid are working with local journalists and women in Pakistan, to assess how they can provide women with menstrual products and specialised clothing.
In a letter addressed to Boris Johnson, Yasmin Qureshi, the Labour MP for Bolton South East and chair of the all party parliamentary group on Pakistan, said about £1.5m of financial aid pledged by the UK government to assist with the immediate aftermath of the floods was “insufficient”.
The sentiment that more needed to be done is one also echoed by Khan. “We really need to see more from governments and from international organisations,” she said. “In a natural disaster, in moments like this, we can’t wait. There is no time. The need is now, so whatever you can do as an individual, please do it.”
