A CATON couple have helped to raise more than £90,000 for the flood-ravaged villages of North West Pakistan.

Helen and William Bingley – trustees of the Abaseen Foundation UK – have helped to mobilise healthcare workers, set up a 22-bedded unit for victims of Cholera and provide water, food and vaccines to those affected.

More than two million people have been affected by the floods, which have been described as the worst natural disaster to hit the country since the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.

Mrs Bingley said: “The situation is critical and desperate with millions of displaced people, insanitary and rapidly deteriorating conditions, devastated crops, increasingly vulnerable livestock, and looming risk from water borne diseases such as Cholera.”

The Abaseen Foundation has provided water purification tablets, food, cooking utensils, gas bottles, animal fodder and vaccines, while three teams of more than 200 local people are providing healthcare to marooned villagers in the Swat Valley, Kohat and around Nahaqi Hospital, near Nowshera.

The hospital, managed by the Foundation in partnership with Pakistan’s North West Frontier Government, has the only functioning source of clean water for miles.

Mrs Bingley said: “Often our people are the first to reach villages cut off by the floods to deliver aid and help them to mobilise themselves.

“The strong relationships and local knowledge we have built up over the years through the Abaseen Foundation give us the access, infrastructure and resources to deliver swift aid and healthcare in deteriorating conditions and treacherous terrain.

“The figures speak for themselves – 20 million affected people, four million people will require food assistance for at least three months and two and a half million acres of cropland are submerged.”

She is appealing for further donations and said all funds would be put to immediate use.

“Any generosity will impact those in need immediately, saving lives and livestock and boosting morale,” she said.

The Foundation will hold a charity gig at The Bowling Green, Lancaster, on September 11.

For details or to donate visit: www.abaseenfoundation.org.uk