On August 8th, 2010 the 4×4 OFFROAD club out of Karachi went into action and launched the Pakistan Flood Relief campaign in partnership with  SA Relief and Behbud Association.

Online donations were collected by Paksef (or the Pakistan Science & Engineering Foundation) a 501(c)(3) non-profit Corporation registered in California.

On the ground the campaign was led by Dr Awab Alvi and Faisal Kapadia.

Since launching the campaign raised over $30,000 in online donations with over 4 Million Rupees from generous donors in Karachi. To date there have been 7 Relief Missions, details are as follows …

Mission 1:

2 trucks of Food Rations,  and care packets were loaded and sent Kashmore area under the supervision and accompanied by members of Motor Club Pakistan. An addition 4 trucks of Food Rations, Tents, and Care packets were sent to Morro and then onwards toShikarpur under the supervision and accompanied by members of  Offroaders Pakistan team,  under the charge of Dr Awab Alvi and Faisal Kapadia.

This relief trip was unique, with constant, real-time status updates by Faisal and Awab on Twitter and a live GPS tracker, donors could follow the relief team minute by minute.  For an indept summary from the mission readers can read Faisal Kapadia’s report.

Mission 2:

There was a convoy of 8 relief trucks valued almost to the tune of Rs. 3 million consists of 6 trucks of food relief hampers and one truck of 100 tents and one container of mineral water bottles.

The team departed Karachi on the morning of Sunday, August 22,  accompany a convoy of 8 relief good trucks,  8 accompanying vehicles with around 25 volunteers for Shikarpur, Sindh.
During the same time, Sana Saleem from Future Leaders of Pakistan led a relief mission to Thatta, Sindh with rations for 600 families.

Similar to Mission 1, supporters from around the world could track the via GPS and their minute by minute Twitter updates. Transcripts of which can be found here.

At the end of the mission Dr Awab stated: “we have with the generous contribution of our donors have impacted the lives of hundreds of families. It has been our belief that the urgent food crisis is a nearing an end as flood will start to recede in the next 10-12 days. Hence starts with return of these IDP’s to their lands and the subsequent rehabilitation. Our team needs to critically evaluate this mission and plan the course of action for the following weeks. WITHOUT DOUBT a lot still needs to be done. Our people are being neglected and they simply cannot wait.”

Mission 3:

A convoy with 20,000 ready to eat meals comprising of one sheermal, 2 packets of chips, 4 packets of biscuits, 1 carton of milk, 1 bottle of mineral water, 1 packet of dates to feed the exodus moving out of thatta towards Hyderabad. Twitter transcripts from the mission can be read at Teeth Maestro Blog.

Mission 4:

Was a the same ready to eat meals to Thatta the enxt day as we had some 10,000 meals left over from the day before – it was lead by Nabil Jangda and Aman Ashraf.  They were held up at Gharro for 2 hours as the situation in makli was dicey.  They stood in Gharro awaiting escorts to guide them into Thatta.   They offloaded their goods at teh DCO office in Thatta and carried onward distribution in their cars and targeted a population nearby

Mission 5:

To Shikarpur SSGC Degree College camp that  houses over 3000 people in the shape of about 300 registered and a 100 unregistered families at an average of 7-8 people each. The team prepared 500 food hampers (5 kg ata, 5 kg flour, 1 litre oil, 2 kg dal, 2 soaps)as well as 500 clothing hampers ( separate suits for male females and children plus shoes) for this school and along with this relief took 1500 additional food hampers and a truck of water  +15  medicine cartons when we set off on mission no 5 on the 3rd of September. Continue reading.

Mission 6:

This was to Khorwah Sindh – this mission was carried out by a fellow offroader Salim Khan who took a large donation of his own while we contributed 400 food hampers to the truck that was heading to Khorwah

Salim Khan organized the cooking the food on site on eid day as well

Mission 7:

With the help and support of Air Force and 70th GDP we have organized a C-130 to Jacobabad Airlift.  a total of 24000 kgs can be airlifted of which 70 GDP is arranging 600 food hampers while offroadpakistan is arranging 500 to be ready tonight and will be delivered in jacobabad

Mission 8:

OffRoadPakistan team is planning an 8th Relief  Mission to  Moro on Sunday 26th September 2010 to provided medical relief.

With the increased influx of patients from Dadu and the existing strain of IDP’s already in the area it has put a heavy strain on the existing resources in Moro and there is definite need for medical support to come and help ease the suffering of the people. A Karachi-wide appeal has been issued to the medical community requesting volunteer support.

Plans are underway to setup a day-long medical camp in Moro, some four hour drive from Karachi at the District Hospital Moro on 26th September 2010 Doctors and the medical support team are requested to come early on Sunday morning to the hospital and help volunteer for the entire day; for information or to sign-up as a medical volunteer visit SA Relief here.

In addition Offroadpakistan team has launched a campaign to rebuild the Shikarpur Civil Hospital, watch video presentation by Dr Awab Alvi here.