|
The innovative Fast4Swat fundraising campaign aimed at raising awareness and much needed funds for the more than 2 million people who have been displaced in recent months by fighting in northern Pakistan has received backing from leading members of the Pakistan Cricket Team, winners of the Twenty20 World Cup.
Fast4Swat's organisers plan to mobilise Britons to help victims of conflict in Pakistan receive the urgently needed aid they require.
All-rounder Shahid Afridi said, "the Fast4swat campaign is a fantastic initiative , not only does it raise awareness for the people of Swat but also the much needed funds, I hope everyone will get behind this brilliant idea."
"The terrible crisis in northern Pakistan and the millions of uprooted people need help urgently," declared Fast4Swat organiser Anjum Tahirkheli. "Fast4Swat's campaign and the www.Fast4Swat.org web site are a way for concerns Britons to help ease the worst effects of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Pakistan."
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has been selected by the organisers as the main beneficiary of the Fast4Swat campaign, which aims to help boost supplies for the desperate people uprooted by the recent fighting in northern Pakistan.
"UNHCR is on the ground in northern Pakistan, working through its vast network of staff and carefully selected partner agencies to help people affected by the humanitarian crisis," Tahirkheli said. "We wanted to work with an agency with grassroots access and sound principles."
Participants in the Fast4Swat campaign may choose to give up some food or another item for a day, the organisers say, whether by fasting, not eating chocolate, not playing computer games or giving up coffee, for example, or simply contributing to the humanitarian effort by channelling funds to UNHCR's relief operation.
UN refugee agency staff overseeing relief programmes in the region report that the displaced fled with little and many are traumatised. The agency fears that the longer the displacement continues, the greater the likelihood that the resources of the tens of thousands of host families who have taken in displaced people will be depleted. In addition to the current displacement emergency, Pakistan continues to host nearly 2 million Afghan refugees, many of whom have been in the country for decades.
Following on the Pakistan Cricket Team's endorsement, organisers of Fast4Swat plan to hold a series of events in the Bradford/Leeds region of England. The campaign will culminate in a Grand Finale, with the support of the Bradford City Council on the 18th July 2009 in Lister Park, Bradford, UK. This will be in the form of a televised Celebrity Summer fete with awards being given to the best idea decided by a panel of Judges in conjunction with a local radio station. There will also be prizes for the school leader board winners in the primary and comprehensive school categories.
A group of school children from Bradford travelled to Trent Bridge last week to meet the Pakistani Cricket team with Fast4Swat.org campaigners ahead of the team’s match against South Africa.
|
