Please give to quake victims (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Please give to quake victims

ASIAN EARTHQUAKE DISASTER: A SWINDON man whose family was caught up in the Pakistan earthquake is helping the relief effort.

Tufail Hussain is a fundraising officer at Muslim Aid, which is co-ordinating donations and aid for the areas affected by the earthquake.

And he is urging Swindonians to give generously to help the people whose lives have been destroyed.

"Funds are urgently needed," said Mr Hussain.

"People are homeless. Winter is setting in and people are living in the fields with no protection from the elements.

"The area is very impoverished. This has seriously, seriously affected the area.

"A whole generation of children has been lost.

"At the moment kids' bodies are being left in the streets because there is no-one to claim them. The true picture still hasn't come out."

Mr Hussain's family is originally from Jalgali in the Mansehra district where at least 10,000 people are thought to have died.

He has heard from his relatives who say no one in the family has died but their village was devastated by the earthquake.

"My aunt's house has been destroyed," said Mr Hussain. "They are out in the fields and it gets down to sub-zero at night because it is up in the hills."

But there was one piece of good news from the family as Mr Hussain's cousin gave birth to a baby girl on Sunday, outside in a field, and mother and baby were both okay.

Mr Hussain, 28, was born in Swindon and lived in the town centre until three months ago when he moved to London to take up his job with Muslim Aid.

His wife Farzana and his children Zainab, three, and Leena, two, still live in the town.

The former Drove Primary and Churchfields School pupil says that about half of the Pakistani community in Swindon comes from the Mansehra district.

"The destruction is unbelievable," he said. "We are just frantically trying to do as much as we can.

"You just want to be out there picking up the stones yourself. But the only thing you can do is do what you can from here.

"It has been manic here, with the telephones going all the time.

"But at least we feel like we are making some difference."

The charity is working with groups in Pakistan and has already allocated £250,000 and sent tents, blankets, clothes and food to the area.

"That is just initially," said Mr Hussain. "Later hopefully we will start to rebuild lives."

Doctors have warned of an outbreak of disease unless more relief arrives soon.

With landslides blocking roads to many of the worst hit areas, Pakistan's army has been flying food, water and medicine into the disaster zone.

Anyone who wants to donate to Muslim Aid to help the relief effort should ring 0207 377 4200 or log on to www.muslimaid.org.

Isabel Field