Donation drive continues for Pakistan

The Red Crescent Society of Iran’s Hamedan province has set up various centers across the province for collecting voluntary donations for flood-stricken Pakistan.

As in many other Iranian provinces, the Red Crescent Society of Hamedan has made extensive efforts to setup centers in major squares and plazas to collect donations in forms of money, medicine, food and supplies for people impacted by the extensive floods in neighboring Pakistan, Fars News Agency reported Thursday.

The Islamic Republic has so far dispatched nearly 200 tons of relief aid to the flood-ravaged country.

Earlier, Iran’s Red Crescent Society had announced its readiness to set up a number of field hospitals in bordering areas with Pakistan to accelerate relief and rescue efforts and treatment of the Pakistani people injured in the recent floods.

Nearly 20 million people are now known to be affected by the torrential rains and heavy flooding in Pakistan. At least 1,600 people have so far been killed.

A recent UN assessment indicates that the scale of the floods is worse than the 2004 tsunami in the Asia pacific and the more recent earthquake in Haiti.