NEW YORK: New England based Pakistani-Americans have quickly mobilized to help push the Pakistan flood relief efforts a notch up - in their own small way.
It's a humanitarian disaster of staggering proportions - the worst flood in its history, said New England Comcast News Network (NECN).
According to published reports, Pakistani American in Boston raised $50,000 over the weekend, but billions are needed to aid those affected by flood-ravaged Pakistan. The United Nations has appealed for $460 million in aid for immediate relief with billions needed over the years to reconstruct the affected areas - a vast swath of 1000 longitudinal miles stretching from the Swat Valley in the north to the Indus plains in southern Sindh.
So far about 20 million people have been affected. It is said to be the worst floods in Pakistan's recorded history, and around 2, 000 are reported dead. More than 6 million children are affected the most - 3.5 million of them are at risk of flood diseases. A case of cholera has also been reported.
Dr. Khalil Khatri, a dermatologist in Boston, and member Association of Pakistan Physicians said, "it is the common man who has suffered the most," but the "news has not traveled out so easily to the American public and the international community, said Oxfam America representative.
Tahir Chaudhry, former president of the Pakistani Association of Greater Boston said he realizes that the country "has a bad rap" right now due to its politics and involvement in the Afghan war, but the flood has affected the common people who have nothing to do with the political situation.
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