The heaviest recorded monsoon in a decade triggered devastating flash floods and landslides in Pakistan, killing more than a thousand people including more than 300 children. Millions of people have been displaced and more than one million homes have been damaged across the country. More than a third of the country has been completely submerged. People have been forced to take shelter on the higher ground wherever they can - on elevated roads and railway tracks, many accompanied by surviving livestock. Others have sought shelter in camps run by aid agencies.

More than 500,000 people are living in relief camps.

The UN estimates that around 33 million Pakistanis - one in seven people - have been affected. As of 27 August 2022, 6.4 million people are estimated to need urgent help to survive. The government of Pakistan called the incessant monsoon rains a climate-induced humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, and on 25 August 2022 officially declared a national emergency.

Many affected areas remain inaccessible due to inundated and damaged road networks. Climate change combined with long-term deforestation and failures to make adaptive changes are quoted as key factors that have contributed to the scale of this devastation. The most vulnerable women, children, elderly, and people with disabilities are bearing the brunt as the floods are battering already vulnerable and deprived districts, which have been affected by high food insecurity and where many people have not recovered from the effects of COVID-19.

The conditions are expected to worsen as the rain continues. RedR UK has a vital role to play in creating an enabling environment to ensure local actors, who are in the frontline responding in their own communities, have the capacity skills, resources and knowledge - to provide an effective, inclusive, principled and accountable response, guided by the sector standards.

RedR UK is seeking £126,062 to initiate a rapid, contextualised and accessible learning programme. £50 could train a doctor, a nurse or a teacher volunteering in their local communities to help women, children and elderly fleeing for their safety. £5K will enable us to train 100 volunteers which enables us to reach at least 50,000 individuals by providing assistance where it is needed.

Please, donate to our Summer Appeal today.