- Friday, April 19, 2024
Human Appeal encourages private donors to contribute to its relief effort.
By: Pramod Thomas
UK charity Human Appeal is highlighting the urgent need for donations to support aid for flood-stricken Pakistan, following unprecedented floods killing over 1000 people and displacing over 33 million.
A quarter of Pakistan is flooded and underwater, equal to the geographic area of Britain.
Through Human Appeal’s field office in Pakistan, along with its partners and collaborating humanitarian organisations, humanitarian aid has begun to be delivered to some 362,564 people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan.
Human Appeal aims to raise £10 million from both private and business donors to reach as many vulnerable people as possible in Pakistan’s worst hit areas. The humanitarian aid includes flood relief, and Human Appeal’s initial response has already distributed over 4000 hot meals, hygiene kits and other emergency assistance within remote areas at some of the worst hit regions. Human Appeal’s special project coordinators have already arrived from the UK to support its field office on the ground in Pakistan.
However, with further monsoon rains set to fall shortly in the region, alongside glacier meltwater due to climate change and India set to open its own floodgates in efforts to mitigate rainfall, the situation in Pakistan is set to dramatically worsen in the coming days.
Human Appeal is strongly encouraging private donors to contribute to its efforts in the country through its website. The scale of this humanitarian emergency is unprecedented beyond the expectations of all NGOs.
Numan Shahid, Special Projects Coordinator, Human Appeal, said, “Human Appeal has seventeen years experience conducting humanitarian operations in Pakistan and this is the most urgent humanitarian crisis we have ever encountered on the ground. The sheer numbers of people displaced by the floodwaters are of a magnitude hard to comprehend, and the need is only set to grow in the coming days with still more rains set to fall in already stricken regions. The 33 million people displaced by the Pakistan floods are equal to half of the UK’s population, with more monsoon rains predicted shortly.
“This is far from a typical monsoon season in the country, with already double the number of monsoon rain cycles impacting the region alongside increasing glacier melt fuelled by climate change. Roadways and livestock have been washed away, and now widespread internet outages are impacting some of the hardest-hit regions making travel and communication almost impossible for people who have already been forced to flee their homes.
“The situation for these people is beyond critical and we are urgently appealing to donors to give what they can; already it is widely recognised that global institutional funding is not enough to assist this country which urgently needs more help, support, and humanitarian aid.”
For more details-www.humanappeal.org.uk
