Key Points
- The Pakistani community in Australia is doing all it can to help their families affected by the devastating floods.
- The diaspora is calling for help from the government to ease the pressure - and help those struggling to survive.
International student Mujahed Torwali felt like all he could do was watch from afar as his village in Pakistan is being ravaged by deadly flooding.
A heavy monsoon season has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, with flash flooding leaving residents stranded as villages, roads and bridges are swept away amid the destruction.
It's been described as a "serious climate catastrophe" by the country's climate minister as a call for international help has been made to secure aid as families are left without food, electricity or basic necessities.
Mr Torwali is one of the hundreds of members of the Pakistani diaspora in Australia who are gathering supplies to send to those hardest hit all while trying to find out if their families are alive and safe.
"I can’t focus on anything because I don’t know what’s happening there with my family because everything is just cut off. We are just cut off," he told SBS News.
"They are living in that part of the world and I'm living here, so all the time, I'm thinking about them. And there is no internet, no telephone, no mobile and nothing, so that's why I am very anxious at what's happening there."
While the country's army and navy continue rescue efforts, the government says it will launch a United Nations-backed appeal in the coming days - seeking more than $230 million in global donations.
Here in Australia, the Pakistani diaspora has come together to support those affected, while many anxiously wait to hear news of their loved ones
Mr Torwali is from the Swat district in Pakistan's north, where there are major internet outages - similar to many affection regions in the country.
He said he only received news his family was safe on Saturday night, but his four-year-old daughter who is still in Pakistan is unwell and unable to receive medical attention.
"She was sick - having some tooth issues and pain," he said.
"They were unable to take her to the doctor because the road was blocked and there was no doctor there was no medicine, everything is underwater."
His local village has been destroyed in what he says is the worst flooding the region has ever seen.
"There were some houses, there were some buildings, big trees, they were there for hundreds of years but this flood just washed over everything. So, it means that this is for the first time in history."
It's not just the Swat district that's been affected, with the destruction stretching across much of the country.
President of the Australian-based Pakistani organisation, Sabeel-E-Mustafa Foundation, Rukhshanda Zama is appealing to the Australian community to donate used clothes, blankets, bed sheets, tarps and tents.
"We want people to come forward and bring it to us and we are arranging containers to be shipped to Pakistan for that relief for those flood-affected areas," she said.
The relief efforts are mobilised across the country in Sydney, Wollongong, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra and Melbourne.
Also from the foundation, Zeeshan Iqbal, as well as the Pakistani Community in Australia group, said it's a critical time for the Australian government to provide a show of support to Pakistan.
"We want the government and we appeal to the prime minister to send aid to Pakistan because it’s the right time and we would really appreciate if something can be sent in the form of aid," he said.
The Foundation says donations of new and used tents are desperately needed, as many of the displaced in Pakistan will be homeless for months - some even years.
"It has been devastating. It has been coming from the top to the bottom of Pakistan. And people are being displaced, we don’t have enough rescue people, so we need help from every corner of the world. So us Pakistanis, diaspora around the world, that’s what we are trying to do."
The donations will be shipped in the coming weeks.
