My name is Arsalan Ahmed, I live in Karachi Pakistan, the biggest City of Pakistan, in the Sindh region. I was very surprised to read your kind and generous views about Pakistan, that unfortunately the world does not have.
I am the General Secretary of The Rotaract Club of Karachi Karsaz, (Rotaract is a Rotary-sponsored service club for young men and women ages 18 to 30). My Club has opened relief camps across Karachi since the inception of the flood. I am proud to let you know that we collected over 1 million Pakistani rupees. (~$12,000 USD (the average monthly salary in Pakistan is ~$41 USD/month))We bought relief items with that money, making boxes for the effected families. Each carton can help a family survive for a week or even more. Each carton includes the following items:2kg Rice
2kg Flour
1kg Sugar
2 ltr mineral water
1 ltr Cooking oil.
1 kg lentils
1kg beans
one packet of biscuit
1 packet (300gms) Tea
one packet milk Powder
2 ltr Milk (liquid)
Pain Killer Medicines
ORS, Glucose
We also provided clothes and tents separately.
All of the material that we bought was taken personally by us, regardless of the risks we have faced on the way. We went to Khairpur, Sukkur, Jamshoro, Hyderabad , Latifabad and Qasimabad. All of which are areas intensely effected areas in the Sindh region.The situation is terrible everywhere, lack of clean water being the biggest issue. I believe people are getting sick from drinking unhygienic water. People have lost every thing. Their lands, their families, their animals, everything they had.
According to what I saw, sadly it is going to take years to recover and build back the infrastructure.
Arsalan Ahmed
If you have a story from the Pakistan floods, please email it to chris@ted.com (Pakistan floods: the stories we're not being told http://bit.ly/9RI2Jm).
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(posted by Jane Wulf)