Wednesday 5 August 2020 19:12, UK
The British Asian Trust has set up an emergency appeal to help the worsening poverty and inequality caused by the corornavirus pandemic across South Asia.
The Trust, founded in 2007 by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and a group of visionary British Asians, delivers programmes in a number of countries including Pakistan.
Wasim Khan, chief executive officer of Pakistan Cricket, explained how the Trust - which also works in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka - has set up the appeal to help families most in need due to the COVID-19 crisis, providing basic needs of food, medicine and other critical supplies.
"The Trust is doing a huge amount of work in South Asia," said Khan. "We linked in with them around the mental health programme - so they work in Pakistan in terms of setting up workshops and counselling for people.
"Like in most South Asian countries, mental health is still a taboo subject.
"They are charity partners of the ECB and they are one of our charity partners as well; they've set up an emergency COVID-10 fund to support victims and people who have suffered through the pandemic across South Asia and there is a lot of work being done in Pakistan around that.
"It has been a real challenge for the Pakistan government because about 30 per cent of people are on the poverty line and a lot of people have daily wages, so they need to get out and work.
"So finding a balance between lockdown and allowing people to go out and work is very fine but organisations like the British Asian Trust and the Shahid Afridi Foundation do a huge amount of work in trying to address a huge amount of inequalities in society in Pakistan."
If you'd like to find out more - or, indeed would like to know how to donate - then you can do so via this link: www.britishasiantrust.org/donate-covid
