Pakistan Flood Appeal

16th August 2010

Pakistan has been hit by the worst flooding in 80 years. 1,600 people are feared dead, 2 million are homeless and some 20 million others have been affected. Child centered community development organisation Plan UK are contributing to the relief effort by providing food, hygiene kits and tents to families most in need. As a supporter of Plan UK, Exodus Travels are encouraging our customers to make any donation they can to the charity.

Here is a link to the story on the Plan website with a link to a page where online donations can be made, or donate direct.

Latest update from Plan:

The Pakistan Prime Minister told Plan “more help from our international friends” is needed during a fly-over of the flood deluged country.

Plan joined leader Yousuf Raza Gilani on a helicopter assessment of the devastated Baluchistan Province to see first-hand the issues people are facing.

He called upon the international community, local leaders and people at large to unite to meet the challenges of the floods which have killed some 1,600 people, made 2 million homeless and affected some 14 million others, many of them children.
Director of Plan in Pakistan, Haider Yaqub joined the Prime Minister’s assessment flight and said he was hit by the “enormous gravity of the situation.” He has also been in the flood-affected areas of Leiha, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Jacobabad and Dera Muraid Jamali.

He said as long as the monsoon rains continued to fall, the situation would continue to deteriorate. Mr Yaqub said: “Until the time the flood waters stop rising, traversing through the country and reach the Arabian sea, and more and more areas come underwater, poor and marginalized people will continue to slip further into trouble, danger and poverty – and among this group, the most vulnerable will be children and women.

“The magnitude of the devastation is huge and is posing enormous challenges to both local and national administrations. We all need to give us much support as we can.”

Many families are being split up by the floods. Plan currently has child protection and water and sanitation experts on the ground checking the situation in temporary camps and among the thousands of people on the move.
Plan continues to support victims of the flood. Our initial relief efforts have included distributing food to 96,350 people. Some 4,000 health and hygiene kits have been packed and shipped to Layyah, Rajanpur and Ghotki for distribution, with 9,000 more to follow. 75 community size tents have been ordered, with 25 community size tents already delivered to Muzafargarh and 39,000 milk tetra packs were sent to Multan for distribution to Leiah and Rajanpur.

Our next stage will be to set up community kitchens and child friendly spaces in Plan supported camps, as well as providing recreational kits for children, as well as initiation of work on issues of child protection.