Pakistan is suffering cataclysmic devastation since the unprecedented floods early August which is now affecting an area the size of the UK in Pakistan. If we take a moment to really think about the scale of this natural disaster and the millions of people affected, it is deeply distressing.  Our lives in the UK and in other countries around the world continue as ‘business as usual’ with our trips to the supermarket, visits to the hospital, having the dignity of lavatory facilities, a roof over our head, access to more food than we can possibly need and clean running water.  We all have much to be grateful for, don’t we?

After becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of aid getting to Pakistan,  I recently went on my own personal relief mission to Lahore  along with the news team from ITN.  I needed to do something much more ‘than writing a cheque.’  My commitments were cancelled and my diary emptied.  I witnessed for myself the CHRONIC issues with food, aid and medicine distribution problems.  We bought and distributed food for more than 1,000 people. It was haphazard and also distressing. It was simply heartbreaking.  

The scale of the infrastructure required for distributing aid is vast  - but the size of the reconstruction programme is just beyond anything I can imagine: Where does one begin rebuilding a country when things are this bad ?   

My trip to Pakistan opened my eyes to see the country where I was born in a completely new light. It’s so fragile yet it’s people are hopeful, and it has spurred me to do even more yet.

My thanks to everyone in the UK who has donated to the relief fund.  Let us not forget the basic humanitarian issues here and I am really hoping the TV footage will help inspire people to support the aid effort for this devastating disaster.

To donate, please go to http://www.thejcf.co.uk/ or http://www.unicef.org.uk/

In the News:

• ITV News – James Caan in Pakistan – View the Video
• Express.co.uk – James Caan on Pakistan: “I just couldn’t write a cheque while people died in squalor” – Read the article
• Express.co.uk – Pakistan floods: Dragons’ Den entrepreneur James Caan flies out to Nowshera to help with emergency flood relief – View the Gallery