Almost five million people have been affected as torrential rain submerged more than 20,000 villages.

One can hardly find a dry place in the flood-hit areas

President Asif Ali Zardari asked for the help of the UN and other international organisations over the weekend as further heavy rains were forecast for the coming days. Sindh was among the worst hit region in last year’s floods in Pakistan, which killed about 2,000 people and made 11 million homeless.

The UN, which has described the situation as critical, is carrying out an urgent assessment. Aid organisations warned in July that Pakistan was unprepared for a repeat of flooding with hundreds of thousands still in camps a year after the country’s worst-ever natural disaster.

Witnesses said that the situation appeared to be worse than last year. Amar Guriro, an environmentalist and journalist, said: “One can hardly find a dry place in the flood-hit areas. I found hundreds of the corpses of dead people, goats, buffaloes, cows, donkeys and other animals.”

More than 2,500 relief camps have already been established in the province giving shelter to more than 225,000 people, officials claim. They admit, however, that since all the main roads leading to the affected area are under water it is difficult for supplies to get through. Mr Guiriro said he saw no evidence that food, shelter and medical supplies were reaching those worst affected.

In a statement the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said: “The situation for those impacted by recent monsoons and subsequent floods is critical, with thousands of people in need of life-saving assistance due to the lack of food and safe drinking water and the loss of livelihoods and homes.”

The UN children’s agency said up to 2.5 million children in southern Pakistan had been affected by the monsoon floods

Don’t let your pride and joy rust, donate it to Giveacar.

As much as we like to try and avoid it, as much as we try to put money in to put it off, the day will come when your car gives up the ghost. Or it may be a ‘project car’ that you bought on a one-off thinking ‘I’ll restore it at the weekend,’ and never quite getting there; so it has been sitting in the garage for so long it seems like it’s beginning to morph into part of the building.

Scrap Cars

Perhaps you’ve seen an advert on a lamppost with a mobile number, making you think that you really should get round to getting rid of it someday.  However, if you go down that route, how do you know that it won’t be unlawfully put back onto the road, leaving you potentially liable to receive speeding tickets and parking tickets for a car you no longer own? Illegal scrapping is a large problem in the UK, with nearly 50% of vehicles not being disposed of through the correct channels.

Giveacar has a destination for your pride and joy; with an added side bonus of being able to do some good for your favourite good cause. Giveacar is an innovative service that facilitates vehicle donation, subcontracting the collection out to another company. All it takes is one phone call to organise, and your scrap car will be collected at no cost to you. Depending on the condition, it will either be scrapped or sent to an auction; and if it is scrapped, at least 85% will be recycled. Therefore, this is the best way to effectively recycle a car.

Donate to Charity

The proceeds from your vehicle will be donated to the charity of your choice, after the subtraction of a small administration fee. Since January 2010, Giveacar has raised over £250,000 for a collective group of over 300 charities. So don’t let your pride and joy deteriorate into a lump of twisted metal on the side of a road; pass it on and put some good back into the world with Giveacar.

For more information, or to donate a car, please visit Giveacar.co.uk.

Perhaps the most sought after marathon around the world, the London Marathon brings both professional runners and charity fundraisers together in this remarkable event. The first London Marathon was held in 1981 (number one single – - Call Me | Blondie ) and this years Marathon 2010 is the 30th anniversary of the race. 2010 – 1981 = 29 30 !!

The event has grown to include 30,000 runners and is perhaps the single most important fundraising charity event for even the largest UK charities.  News today that this years marathon is expected to take the total since 1981 to half a billion pounds in fundraising revenue from sponsiorship and charity donation.

The marathon, a charity itself, has become the world’s most successful fund-raising charity events, working with two thousand charities.

Running the London Marathon

Entries for each years event open online in April immediately after that years race.  With a one in six chance of beign lucky in the ballot successfull applicants hear the good news in September – just as the evenings start to draw in.  Training for the London marathon begins

An example of dedicated training is Sir Jog Alot who has offered a sponsor this block opportunity on his site – good thinking – hope it works.

Fundraising by not running the London Marathon

A chap simply called Bob has had a bright idea. His application was unsuccessful but undeterred he plans to raise a few bob by not running the London marathon and has set up fundraising page to which <towoo> he hopes to drive sponsors.

London Marathon Costumes

One advantage of not running the London marathon states Bob is to avoid the jostling crowds and bumping into giant Rhinos.  The costumes are becoming more and more elaborate – who can forget the chap in the deep sea diving costume and a jogging Elvis/Santa/cross dresser never fails to bring a smile to TV viewers and a cheer of support from the crowds that line the entire route.  Heres 50 London marathon costumes.

The dreadful disaster (as recognised by the Disaster Emergency Committee) requires our support and those behind the disgusting scam should be found and sent to see and help the situation – perhaps be made to stay.

In the shadow of the grim events in Haiti we are seeing less and less about the outrageous bonus payments about to be paid to banking and financial professionals gamblers.

Send Bankers Bonuses to Haiti Earthquake Aid

Some are even calling for a tax on all bankers bonuses at 100% and give them all to Haiti earthquake aid.  The astonishing announcement that once again the eye watering bonuses are to be paid out for playing around with other peolple money really does highlight the injustice around the world.

Our petty concerns pale into insignificance compared with events like these. I agree  tax all those bloody bankers 100% and transfer the money to help aid and reconstruct Haiti and going forward divert these ill gotten gains to other helpful projects worldwide.

Donate to the Haiti Earthquake Disaster Fund

In addition to encouraging direct donations for the Haiti earthquake appeal communities are arranging fundraising and charity events to support the work of relief agencies.

People have wealth in order that they provide for the poor. James (bible bloke) sort of told Paul, “Remember the Poor.”

Having intoduced the funky TAG cloud to the sidebar it was interesting to see what the focus of the site has been since bothering to add tags. An observant reader noticed that although there was no tag for ”puss’ (y cats!) there was a big tag for pants. The ‘Pasty’ quite rightly has a whopping big tag and at this time of year it’s not surprising to see ‘Christmas’ feature strongly.  What we did notice though was a diminutive ‘charity gifts’ tag and as such we decided to boost the prominence of that in the following post.

What are charity gifts?

Charity gifts are . . . well I’ll let this Oxfam Unwrapped page explain how their charity gifts work:

Oxfam Unwrapped offers a range of great gifts suitable for any occasion – here’s how it works. You choose a gift, such as a goat. You get a gift card – charity christmas cards to give to your friend or relative as a memento of the gift.

The gift goes to someone who needs it. Whether it’s a goat to provide milk and fertiliser, the tools and training to plant an allotment, or safe water to drink, the result is that people’s lives are much improved!

One of the things holding people back is the feeling that giving in someone’s name can come off as preachy.

But it doesn’t have to be. The key to gifting donations is that it should be just as personalised as a physical present. If you have an animal lover on your list the afore mentioned goat is ideal or a charity donation to the local humane society or no-kill shelter makes sense. And don’t be afraid to get creative. If you have a family member who’s irrationally attached to the penny, make a donation in their name. Have a little fun. Christmas giving is a chance to show your loved one that you “get” them, so it should feel like they’ve given the gift themselves.

I like the dual gift of soap and manure – hey another heavily featured tag crap – fun and cheeky! I checked out the Unwrapped site, and you can also plant trees and help build schools.

Be generous give often and munch onwards and upwards.

Every now and then we feel obliged to veer from the frivolities of life and focus on a real life issue – see the previous post calling for action regarding the food shortage and famine in drought areas of Kenya.  Visitors looking for unusual wedding gift ideas seemed pleased to find the post that suggested setting up charity wedding gift list allowing guests to give  charity gifts to someone in need on behalf of the happy couple.

Goats – Sold Out

So successful was the concept of giving a goat as a charity gift that for a while the following message to disappointed visitors in search of the versatile gift.

Due to huge demand for this gift, it’s not

currently available – sorry!

The charity gift doesn’t have to be the actual goat

in fact many organisations hope that the money is gifted for them to decide where it can be best used – to send aid and releif to those in most need see the previous post calling for action regarding the food shortage and famine in drought areas of Kenya

As readership of the Pasty Muncher steadily grows – you’ve seen that snappy facebook “be a fan” button? – we like to think that an occasional contribution to raising awareness of issues that afffect people around the world will encorage some sign of support – a charity donation perhaps or at the very least merely raising awareness so that as we here in the UK approach another over cindulgent Christmas some of us will at least think about the plight those far less fortunate – the many communities around the world in desperate need of assistance..

East Africa Drought – Kenya

Over on the Daily Smellygraph a surprisingly refreshing blogger, GG, asks – what does it take to make people wake up to the devastating effects of climate change citing the Kenya dought as yet another example of terrible suffering that is becoming more common throughout the world.  The numbers are staggering – 19 million people affected by the lack of rain in Kenya – entire regions devastated, cattle being slaughtered.

Is the food shortage in Kenya  famine?

Already the lack of food in the region is being reported as famine however due to the technicalities of the implication of using the term famine fundraising organisations aren’t yet able to use the term that might perhaps generate more contibutions than the seemingly softer approach of food shortages.

It would appear that once a famine has been declared alls resources from individual support agencies are pooled and controlled by the Disaster Emergency Committee – DEC – an umbrella organisation which launches and coordinates responses to major disasters overseas. It enables the British public to donate to British aid agencies – the DEC remit is to unite agency efforts in times of disaster – such as flood, earthquake or famine – wherever it happens in the world

Oxfam’s work in Kenya

Disaster relief agencies are already working to help those affected by the Kenya drought – Oxfam is trucking in clean water to communities and are also working with local pastoralist groups to buy up cattle weakened by the drought and at risk of dying – giving the herders an income, and then distributing the meat to hungry families.

In the long-term Oxfam aim to provide development projects which reduce communities’ vulnerability to the increasing droughts.

Although I will suggest that visitors consider making a charity donation to support the work of Oxfam and other aid organisations tackling the problems faced by communitiess affected by the Kenya drought I have to ask what the country and more importantly the countries that import produce from Kenya are doing to help themselves?

I found it astounding that even in times of drought Kenya exports food yet its population go hungry. The large farms that export vegetables, tea, coffe, flowers all use vast amounts of water while the population have little or no clean fressh water or food.

Shame on the Kenyan government and shame on those that buy food produced there amongst your weekly food shoppping.