Subscribe to our news RSS feed 
Aid to the Church in Need UK's Ipadio channel
For the latest from the UK office's project trips, events and pilgrimages
Tagged with
Related country profiles
PAKISTAN: Largest aid package yet for flood victims
By John Pontifex
Bishop Max Rodrigues of Hyderabad in Pakistan has warned that the flood crisis will deepen
Aid to the Church in Need is announcing today (Friday, 3rd September) a major emergency package to help thousands of people worst-affected by the floods in Pakistan.
The £41,100 bound for Sindh Province, in the south-east of the country, is the latest Pakistan floods grant from the charity and brings Aid to the Church in Need’s total help for the flood victims to £86,300.
With Sindh being the province worst-hit by the floods, this latest aid payment will once again provide for basic needs – food, including flour, cooking oil, sugar and dhal as well as water purification tablets and mosquito nets.
Submitting the aid application to Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Max Rodrigues of Hyderabad said the help would provide for up to 10,000 people in some of the areas most devastated by the floods which include Sukkur, Kandhot, Kashmore and areas outside Hyderabad city itself.
In a report accompanying the application, Bishop Rodrigues warned of the crisis deepening, with fears of destitute people facing starvation, a problem made worse by “sky rocketing” inflation.
A cholera epidemic is now “imminent”, he stated, because of poor nutrition and lack of clean water.
He said: “Tough days lie ahead of us. Since millions of people have lost everything and don’t have money, people may face starvation. The aftermath of the floods may be worse. God help us.”
The bishop goes on to give a poignant account of a desperate mission to travel to the worst-affected regions to provide basic help and support.
He wrote: “On the way we saw many villages and vast areas submerged. People who had fled from the floods [were] sitting on higher grounds along the main highway without food and shelter, waiting for some help to arrive.”
Describing scenes of people migrating in numbers “never seen in our history before,” he added: “It was an unforgettable and most distressing experience for us to see the whole city of Sujawal under water and army boats rescuing people who were marooned.”
The bishop reported that 91 bridges were damaged or destroyed by the floods, with roads to most flood-affected areas rendered impassable.
He said: “The scale of the disaster has been so unimaginably large that it seemed impossible to reach out to all the affected victims of the flood.”
But he said that, working with diocesan welfare support organisations, he had organised a task force to help provide food, soap, water and mosquito nets to the most needy people.
He went on to describe how at Saint Mary’s High School in Sukkur, religious Sisters Nargis and Rosie were organising teams of volunteers providing cooked food and water for hundreds of people.
Bishop Rodrigues said that with Aid to the Church in Need’s help he could expand these aid relief programmes and reach regions in the far south of the province which are in dire need.
The bishop’s account of the floods comes amid growing reports – including some from sources close to Aid to the Church in Need – which describe how the Pakistan government refused to shore up banks of the River Indus running through regions populated by minority groups including Hindus, Sikhs and Christians.
On Monday, 30th August, Fides news agency reported that 15 people died after a Pakistani politician, desperate to save his property, ordered the diversion of flood waters into a Christian village.
Khokharabad village was completely flooded and 377 people were made homeless. There was major damage to crops.
According to official government figures, 1,650 people died in the floods and their immediate aftermath, of which 1,100 were from Sindh. Across the province, 500,000 are thought to be affected by the floods.
As well as the £41,000 for Sindh, Aid to the Church in Need’s help for flood victims includes £20,450 for Multan, in the south of the Punjab province, £12,270 for Quetta, Baluchistan province, and £12,270 for Nowshera, a town west of the capital, Islamabad.