Last night we hosted a Pakistani dinner to help raise money following the floods in Pakistan. A few weeks ago I had the idea and you can read my thoughts on the floods in Pakistan on my previous two blog posts here and here.
The calm before the storm!
I put out an email to all the staff at school explaining I’d be hosting a dinner catered for by a favourite Pakistani restaurant of ours here in Brunei – charging guests for the evening. There was a great response, both from those interested in coming along to the meal but also many just offering donations. So this blog post is a report of the evening – which we raised over $1000 (Brunei) from after costs (and still expecting a few more donations).
The various tasty dishes on offer!
Friday is a half day for us at school, so we had time to prepare for the evening during the afternoon. I had ordered the food the previous weekend when we had lunch at the restaurant. We were expecting 35 people, so set up seating outside and inside.
The first guests (who shall remain nameless!) arrived an hour early having misread the starting time! Not to worry, it allowed for a G+T and a catch up before the rest of the guests and the food arrived.
Guests started to arrive from the 6.30 start time onwards – but still no food! I text Amjad to make sure everything was okay and sure enough he was on his way. 15 minutes later, the food arrived; Chicken ginger, beef seikh kebabs, bindi (okra / lady’s fingers ), chana masala (chickpea), plain biryani, tandoori roti and roghni naan! All smelling delicious!
Enjoying the evening.
Guest continued to arrive – just about finding parking spaces along the simpang. At 7pm we took the lids off the food and we all tucked in.
The evening continued on with lots of chit-chat, drinks and continuing ‘picking’ at the food – obviously so tasty there was always room for ‘one more bite’!
Just enough seats!
All in all a great evening that I think most guests enjoyed and best of all, plenty of money was raised that will be sent to help rebuild communities in Sindh, southern Pakistan, following the floods.
A quick update / comment on the ongoing crisis in Pakistan. It is good to see that a reasonable amount of focus remains on the country with updates regularly on the news.
Yesterday the UN launched their largest ever natural disaster appeal – seeking over 2 billion US dollars. There appears to be more and more acknowledgement that funding commitments need to be for the long term not the immediate crisis. The $2 billion target will be spent over the next 12 months and is more than 4 times the initial request of $460 million.
In my last blog post I highlighted a number of facts and figures to try and give some sort of illustration of how huge a disaster the flooding is. This increase in the appeal amount from the UN – again I highlight that this is more than any other UN appeal – shows the severity of the impact these floods have had in Pakistan.
Although news outlets continuing to keep Pakistan in the headlines and helping to raise the profile of what is happening is encouraging, it is not always done in the correct tone. Just as I started writing this post this morning, BBC World News listed what features were on today’s programme. I quote:
Later in the programme we will be continuing our journey down the river Indus…
It was said in an ‘adventure TV show’ tone and it is important to remember viewers are not watching a TV show, this is real life. Admittedly, it is nearly impossible to imagine the scale of 20 million people being directly affected by the flooding. However, is important to guard against getting sucked in to watching the news reports from Pakistan as entertainment.
The school I work at raised B$1000 (Brunei dollars) from a non-uniform day and have kindly agreed to add this to funds I am raising through hosting a Pakistani dinner evening. Interest has been quite high and I hope to have about 35 people for dinner next Friday. A local Pakistani restaurant we frequent here in Brunei will be catering. So far we are a little short of raising B$1000 from the evening. The student council at school are also organising an event – a quiz night – from which the proceeds will also be added to the schools donation. I am confident that the B$2000+ will make a difference to the people of Pakistan who have had their lives torn apart.
The Pakistani High Commission here in Brunei are also keen to organise fund raising events and have asked the school for their participation. They plan to hold a ‘walkathon’ at the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah National Satium. I am hopeful that some of our students can participate in the event to help raise awareness of the plight of the Pakistani people. It is good to see the High Commission here organising something.
During my research for this blog I thought I would read up about the National Stadium. It opened in 1983, the date for the opening event was to coincide with His Majesties father’s 70th birthday. A UK league football team was invited over to play the Brunei National football team for the opening event. That team was…. Sheffield United! What are the chances of that?! Being a lifelong Blades fan I was of course both amazed and delighted! Naturally, I must let you know the score of that game, Blades went on to win 1-0. Apparently the first team returned to Brunei in 1993 and won 4-1. Perhaps they need another visit here for pre-season trianing in the hot and humid conditions, given their current form!
Evidence of the first ever match at the National Stadium with the Blades and the Sultan (who I met last weekend) in attendance!
A further comment on the UN’s ambition to raise over $2 billion to finish with. I still think there is a reluctance to donate money to Pakistan’s flood victims due to the fear of corruption. In many ways this is understandable. One must only look across the border to Afghanistan to see how easily corrupt practices are allowed to go on. Still, I remain confident that through the right channels it is possible to give so that it positively impacts the floods victims.
Have you done anything to try and help? What are your thoughts about the UN’s appeal? Can an ordinary person like you or me make a difference to a flood victim in Pakistan? Please let em know your thoughts and comments!
So I have been mulling over writing a blog about the flood disaster in Pakistan for a few days now but have not had the chance to blog for a while. So here goes, my thoughts on the floods mixed in with facts and figures.
I think it is so easy to just think of a world disaster as just another misfortune somewhere in the world when it gets to such a scale. So, just to highlight how devastating these floods are, let’s look at some figures.
Reports estimate the number of people severely affected by the flooding at around 20 million. That’s a third of the population of the UK or over 50 times the population of Brunei. Of these 20 million people, 9 million are said to be children. [NB. from the UN: “To be “affected” means to somehow be in need of humanitarian assistance because of the flooding.”] The UN have said that this is more than the number of people affected by the boxing day tsunami, Haiti earthquake, northern Pakistan earthquake and hurricane Katrina combined – although there were more deaths.
Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon gives a concise evaluation:
Pakistan is facing a slow-motion tsunami. Its destructive power will accumulate and grow with time… Make no mistake: this is a global disaster, a global challenge. It is one of the greatest tests of global solidarity in our times.
In the next six months, half a million women are expected to give birth in areas affected by the floods. Over 6 million people do not have access to clean water – almost the entire population of London. 3,500,000 children are at risk of deadly water-born diseases – that is more than the population of Singapore.
Over 3.2 million hectares (about 16% of cultivated land) of crops have been destroyed by the flooding – that’s roughly the size of Switzerland and that is just the area of crops not of land underwater! A huge livelihood simply wiped out as approximately 80% of the population depend on agriculture.
The difficulty with emergencies generated from flooding is that floods build up over time – not instant hits like tsunamis and earthquakes. The size of the disaster is continually growing. Funding, aid and support over the coming months and years as the floods slip off the news tickers will be vital.
So what can be done?
Raising awareness is huge and easy to do. I have really been surprised at the number of status updates on facebook that make mention of the flooding. OK, many of my friends have connections with Pakistan as I was brought up there but it is still encouraging. Raising awareness helps with, even if you can, the next part: fund raising.
As with any international disaster funding will always be required and many charities are seeking people to give generously. As outlined above with concerns over corruption, it does take careful consideration to decide who to give through to ensure the money is effectively used. Groups such as Tearfund work with local agencies on the ground in Pakistan such as SSEWA-Pak. By raising awareness about the need for aid and by giving to such organisations you can help overcome the idea that money goes straight to line ministers pockets or arm terrorists. SSEWA-Pak work with a number of other agencies beyond Tearfund and will be involved in various projects to rebuild schools and other community buildings long after the media have forgotten about what is happening.
Tearfund suggest that £88 will be enough to supply four families with a food package to last 30 days. That’s surely much less than you even spend on your own lunch in a month.
You have done well to read this far and please don’t stop reading just because I put a paragraph about religion in! As a Christian I feel I have a responsibility to take an interest and act upon it. As Romans CH12 v15 says:
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
I have many things to be thankful for and am so much more ‘well off’ than many in Pakistan at the best of times – yet they are the ones that are in the wrong place at the wrong time and have to deal with such awful consequences.
Furthermore, not only do I have earthly things to be thankful for but, as 1Peter 1:22 says:
You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.
Brothers and sisters does not need to be read as fellow Christians but as fellow human beings. Just as we are told that Christ has loved us, so we must love one another.
Now, taking a ‘non-religious’ stance on it even ignoring the responsibility I feel as a Christian, I also think we have a responsibility as a human beings. We hear all the time that we live in such a ‘small world’ and how through modern technology we now live in a global community. Well part of living in a community, I think, means supporting other members within that community. As such, regardless of our different beliefs, we should be doing something.
So what am I doing about it? Well, in a few weeks time I plan to host a fund raising dinner. Late last year we found an excellent Pakistani restaurant in Kuilap here in Brunei. The food is very authentic and I have got to know the owner, Amjad, a bit. I plan to get the restaurant to cater for us and charge those who wish to come – with the money going to the rebuilding of communities in Sindh, southern Pakistan (where I grew up). The few people I bounced the idea off have responded very positively and I am hopeful that it will be an enjoyable evening with the people of Pakistan the ones who benefit the most.
So to finish with, here is a news report from an area suffering from the flooding. So what you think, there are hundreds on the news and internet now. Well this one reports from Hyderabad, Sindh – my home from age 2.
Thanks for reading. Please let me know your thoughts and what you are doing or could do to help.
PlaneSimple Thoughts 