An Aberdeen aid worker in Pakistan has urged people in the north-east to “dig deep” to help the thousands of people who have lost their homes in the floods.
Habib Malik, head of Islamic Relief Scotland, flew out to the north-west province of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa on Sunday and has seen first-hand the devastation caused by monsoon rains.
Dozens of roads, railway lines and bridges in the region have been damaged by floods, and farmland and villages have been destroyed.
An emergency camp opened at Nowshera yesterday, and within hours thousands of people had turned up desperate for shelter, food and clean water.
Mr Malik, who won the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award this year, said the scenes at the camp were chaotic.
The 43-year-old, who stays in the Hilton area of Aberdeen, said: “The doors just opened when I arrived. There were hundreds and hundreds of people entering the grounds anxiously holding their identification cards and rushing to the registration tables to get a place at the camps.
“Within two hours, over 1,000 people had registered – men, women, children, and the elderly. Nobody had any valuables with them and they all had a story to tell.
“Some of them had lost homes or family members, while others had spent two nights on their roof as their house was surrounded by water.
“One man left his family here and went to Dubai for five years to make money so that he could open a shop when he returned to Pakistan. He lost it in the floods and is left with nothing.”
Mr Malik spent much of yesterday handing out tents and plastic sheeting on behalf of Islamic Relief Scotland, but said many more were needed to cope with demand, especially as more heavy rain is forecast today and tomorrow.
“We had 150 tents, and they were gone quickly but it’s nothing compared to the thousands we need,” he said. “We are now working to try to source food, hygiene kits and mosquito nets to try and prevent diseases such as malaria and cholera from spreading.
“Medicine supplies, food, shelter and access to clean water are in short supply.”
Mr Malik will stay in Pakistan for at least the rest of the week to ensure aid is distributed to those who need it most. He urged people to donate money to any of the charities helping the victims of the disaster, which has already claimed the lives of about 1,110 people.
He said: “I know that there are many families struggling to make ends meet, but I also know from past experience just how generous people in the north-east and the rest of Scotland are. I would urge them to dig deep and spare what they can afford.”
Videos and information about Mr Malik’s work are available on his website at www.habibmalik.com, or on www.twitter.com/habib_malik