Ayn Academy in collaboration with Al-Ghazzali Centre and ReliefWorks is hosting a fundraiser for the Swat Valley catastrophe in hope of raising funds for what is a forgotten humanitarian emergency.

The Swat Valley catastrophe has caused some 3 million refuges displaced. It is possibly the worst refugee situation the world has seen within such a short time. Nearly 80% of all displaces people are women and children.

This project is globally endorsed by Muslim Scholars, including Shaykh Faraz Rabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir and Imam Afroz Ali.

An Important Message from Imam Zaid Shakir

An Important Message from Imam Tahir Anwar

An Important Message from Imam Afroz Ali

All proceeds collected from this fundraiser are for Swat Valley Relief through Edhi Foundation.

Swat is located in Northern Pakistan, 160km from the country’s capital Islamabad. In recent months a military operation by the Pakistan army against local Taliban militants has led to a humanitarian crisis of great proportions. More than 3 million people have fled the region, leaving their homes and belongings, becoming refugees in their own country. 80% of the refugees are women and children. The situation has been described by the United Nations as the most dramatic displacement of people since the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

Some of the problems faced by the refugees are:

• a severe shortage of food, clean drinking water, medicines, clothes and other basic necessities

• lack of toilets and poor sanitary conditions

• coming from the mountainous Swat region, refugees are now having to adjust to the extreme summer heat, resulting in many health problems such as skin diseases, fever, diarrhoea, and gastroenteritis in children