Shelter and access to clean water are among the very basics of human needs, so when our Members saw reports from Pakistan on the floods there they were keen to help – with donations subsequently made to ShelterBox, Aquabox and the DEC.
The floods in Pakistan have been devastating, with vast swathes of the country under water, leaving millions in need of help to survive and tens of thousands of people without shelter or access to safe water.
A major challenge for all those providing humanitarian relief following the flooding has been the logistics of getting support to areas where airports, roads, rail lines and bridges have been destroyed or are not functional as a result of the floods; additional concerns were raised by the fact that it's monsoon season.
At the height of the disaster our club took a three-pronged approach to supporting the flood effort.
The first was to donate around £500 to ShelterBox, which provides emergency shelter to families who have lost their homes to disaster, enabling them to rebuild their lives. ShelterBox began in 2000 as a Cornish Rotary Club’s millennium project and, since 2012, ShelterBox and Rotary have been official Project Partners in disaster relief. The aid to Pakistan includes tents, water filters and carriers, mosquito nets, and solar lights.
The second was to donate just under £340 to Aquabox, which is a charity originally established in 1992 by the Wirksworth Rotary Club that provides safe drinking water, through the use of filtration units, and humanitarian aid to crisis zones around the world. According to their website, "Aquabox, is helping one of the areas of Pakistan most affected by the recent flooding to help reduce disease from contaminated water. The first consignment of 24 Aqua 12's and 20 Community filters will meet the water needs of 13,000 people." We are delighted to have already received a letter of thanks from Aquabox for our donation.
The monies for these two donations primarily came from the weekly raffle we hold at our Club meetings.
Finally, Members agreed to make a donation from our Club funds to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal for the Pakistan floods; together with additional donations from individual Members (some were so moved by the pictures and reports from Pakistan they made personal donations of £100 each), a total of £1,465 was sent to the DEC (at the time the UK government were reported to be match funding up to £5million.)
If you're in a position to support the appeal, please see the links below.
- To donate to ShelterBox's appeal, click here: https://shelterbox.org/where-we-work/pakistan-flooding-main
- To donate to Aquabox's campaign, click here: www.justgiving.com/campaign/AquaboxPakistan2022. Or visit their website to learn about other countries where they work: https://www.aquabox.org/donate-online.html
- To donate to DEC's appeal, click here: https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/pakistan-floods-appeal
- More recently, Rotary Great Britain & Ireland Disaster Recovery Trust has also launched its Pakistan Disaster appeal which you can donate to here: https://giving.give-star.com/online/rotary-disaster-recovery-trust/pakistan-disaster-appeal
