Chesham Pakistan flood support raises crisis aid

Since mid-June the floods have killed 1,508 people, destroyed 1.8 million homes and buried farming land in the country with 46 million of its citizens already below the poverty line.   

Chesham community went “straight into action” as soon as they heard of the disaster, Chesham Town councillor Parveiz Aslam said.

He said: “What was great - money and funds aside - moms, dads, different inter-faiths people, cultures, elderly, English and youngsters, all voluntary, were coming in and spending time and packaging stuff late in the evening.

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“On one occasion, a couple of groups went home at 2 o’clock in the morning. I didn’t tell them to do that, they just wanted to make sure everything was done.

“On the final day it was pouring down with rain, when we filled a truck up. The truck was also donated by a local businessman, who drove it.

“It was regardless of culture, faith and colour, which was beautiful." 

I have never seen climate carnage on the scale of the floods here in Pakistan.

As our planet continues to warm, all countries will increasingly suffer losses and damage from climate beyond their capacity to adapt.

This is a global crisis. It demands a global response. pic.twitter.com/5nqcJIMoIA

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) September 10, 2022

Two shipping containers were sent to Pakistan two weeks ago, followed by another one sent out on Friday (September 16). 

Mr Aslam said: “Quite often, when you associate with Pakistan and only the Muslims coming together, it wasn’t the case. Every time I also went to the shops, they gave you a huge discount and best wishes.”

Chesham Mosque raised around £25,000, which was collected on a Friday afternoon after the Friday prayers, Mr Aslam said.

A group of women raised £5,000 in their own group activity, and donated it to Five Pillars charity in High Wycombe.

Mr Aslam’s son, a marathon runner, ran seven half-marathons in seven days to raise thousands, and his niece in Scotland raised almost £100,000 before going to Pakistan to help as a doctor.

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Chesham Mosque kindly let the fundraisers, spearheaded by Mr Aslam, to use the mosque to collect the goods, and just within a week, they had collected three to four tonnes of goods worth around £12,000.

While the money raised sounds great “a collection is just a needle in a haystack really” for 30 million displaced people, Mr Aslam said.

“The amount of money is almost infinitesimal. The disaster has devasted one-third of the country, and we’re going to do another collection and awareness next year, because the problems are not going to go away.

“Now that the waters are still high, my niece reports with her videos every day, and she’s saying that the waters are still not receding.

“With the waters, you’ve got diseases, which are rife at the moment – mosquitoes, dengue virus and all that sort of thing.

“Once the water recedes, then you’re going to have another layer of appeal. At this present moment, it was just emergency funds that we did.”

To support global relief effort, Save the Children Pakistan fundraiser can be found here, Islamic Relief fundraisers here and Disaster Emergency Committee's Pakistan appeal here.