Rotherham Councillor, Mahroof Hussain and local businessmen Hanif Khan from Homeflair, Mohammed Unees and Gazi Sadiq local property developers and Nasir Mir, owner of APNA Restaurant  held a fundraising event for the pakistan floods on sunday evening.

Around 50 invited guests along with Lord Ahmed who gave a talk on the floods attended the event at the APNA Restaurant in Meadowbank. The Restaurant very generously did not charge for the food for the guests as their contribution towards the appeal. 

Over £20,000 was raised for the floods in less than an hour. Calls are still coming in with more donations and pledges.          

Councillor Hussain said “it is so humbling to see the generosity of those that attended and donated with such open hands. To raise in excess of £20,000 in less than an hour is truly a testament to the generosity of the local community and every penny will go directly towards helping the affected. We are looking to provide long term sustainable support by possibly working in a village to help it rebuild from the affects of the floods.”

Councillor Hussain saw the start of the flood devastation when he was in pakistan recently.  When the floods started and was affected while he was in Rawalpindi and Islamabad when the river burst its banks and continuous torrential rain flooded the streets and densely populated neighbourhoods.

The organisers along with those who wish to accompany them will be travelling to pakistan to distribute the aid. The initial plan is to target the resource to make the best impact.

Mohammed Unees said ”. We will target depending on the need either develop the educational, health or infrastructure needs depending on what we find when in pakistan”

The team  will be doing on going appeals during the year because this is a long term disaster. The area size of Italy has flooded, over 20 million affected, over 3 million children at serious risk of infection and disease. Re-development cost is around $10 Billion.