(Please be warned, some of the pictures lower down are not pretty).

An impoverished Christian family in Pakistan was hit by a huge tragedy when a gas-related explosion and fire at their slum home killed two children (cousins) in the family and left at least four others in critical condition. The victims were rushed to hospital, but the medical authorities firstly refused them admission to the burns ward, and only permitted them in the general ward and later discharged them. Appeals for help to the local authorities were ignored.

The picture above is of Faryab, the surviving daughter (conflicting information - either 13, or 9) of the family. Her 5 day old brother and both her parents were also critically injured.

The above is baby Johnson, injured at just 5 days old.

The mother, Zahida above.

The family lost their 2 year old son Sanayia Shan, and a 12 year old cousin who was with them, Istana pari. The father Imram is also badly injured, (see below).

We have other pictures, but these are more than enough to show the types and extent of the injuries - legs and body affected too.

Our contact on the ground currently estimates that three months treatment and support will be about £1450. Our contact runs a small local charity, but they already have other commitments financially. The already impoverished and persecuted / embattled Christian community has been badly hit by Covid, but they have managed to raise a few hundred pounds so far, plus providing some help other help, but they can't do much more than this. Our contact has appealed to us to raise funds.

Are other people raising funds for them, and how do I know you are legit, or a victim of a scam? What happens to the money if there is too much, or the project fails to reach its target?

Firstly, as far as I know, no-one else is raising funds for them. The charity on the ground have indicated that they are asking us to take the lead and are encouraging supporters to give via this page. I will liaise with them and will reduce the amount we are aiming for as appropriate if circumstances change, such as money coming in from elsewhere (including a fundraiser on another site), or, God forbid, family members succumbing to their injuries, or revised estimates of the amount needed.

As to legitimacy and scams, that's a fair question. Unfortunately there are quite a few scams that go around. Firstly, if you google my name and Pakistan, you should find (among other things) evidence that I have had quite a long track record of working with and for Pakistani Christians. Personally, since lockdown, I have been sending help to impoverished Pakistani Christians via a couple of long-term trusted contacts. I don't know the exact amount, but it is well into the four figure range. I have helped pay for medical operations for burns, the rebuilding for a poor widows slum house roof that was destroyed in monsoons, and helped feed many rural families and some widows and disabled folk in a big city. I have also done one small appeal on this platform where we raised money to pay for a successful operation to remove a huge, and I mean HUGE, growth from a little baby's back (his parents are bonded labourers, which is a kind of debt slavery).

But am I legitimate, yet have been scammed? No. The people who run the local charity are people (now UK based) who I have known personally for a long time. This is not some random reach out from some folks unknown to me.

Finally, if this campaign ends up raising money in excess of the target, or for some other reason ends up having more money than is needed, then, provided all the emergency needs of this family are met, I will use any money left for similar needs - the most impoverished of Pakistani Christians, through my two contacts. Quite likely it would go to a planned separate campaign to build a school for the children of rural bonded labourers, somewhere fairly close to where this unfortunate family lives.