Story
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 13pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">One year on from the Pakistan floods of 2010, thousands of the victims are still living in tents with only basic supplies, doing their best to survive amongst the terrible devastation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 13pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"> I, like many others, was unaware of the major issues which still face Pakistan due to the floods:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 13pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">1. The United Nations has rated the floods in Pakistan as the greatest humanitarian crisis in recent history.</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"> Already, more people have been affected by<span style="color: red;"> </span>the Pakistan floods than by the 2004 South-East Asian tsunami and the recent earthquakes in Kashmir and Haiti combined. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 13pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">2. Only a fraction of the people needing aid have been contacted by emergency crews.</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"> In the first 10 days following the initial flood waves, the government only managed to distribute around 10,000 food packs, containing a box of dried milk and a few bottles of water and Pepsi. These packages were meant to “feed” 80,000 people, leaving 1,720,000 without any type of aid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 13pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">3. The destruction is enormous.</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"> Reports indicate 62,000 square miles of land have been damaged by the floods - about one-fifth of the entire country. From this portion of the country, 15 million people have been seriously affected. Of the 15 million, 6 million people have been displaced. This is close to displacing everyone that lives in London. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 13pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">Despite all this devastation, <a href="http://pennyappeal.org/"><span style="color: #0000ff;">PennyAppeal.org</span></a> and 12 volunteers will aim not only to raise awareness of the plight of the forgotten victims, but also to raise a total of £40,000. The challenge is to trek to the top of Everest base camp from the 2<sup>nd</sup> to the 18<sup>th</sup> December.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 13pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">This much needed press and funding will be used to rebuild homes for the poorest people. So please help and donate now<span style="color: #151515;">.</span></span></p>