Members from various faith communities continue to work together on the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to bring relief and aid to survivors of the Pakistan earthquake which struck on Oct. 8th 2005.

|PIC1|Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (CAFOD) has already given Islamic Relief £100,000 to support its ongoing work in Pakistan, with a further contribution of £250,000 soon to arrive from Christian Aid.

CAFOD and Islamic Relief have already worked together in providing relief to survivors of last year’s Tsunami, as well as survivors of the 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran.

“CAFOD works with all people, regardless of their race, gender, religion or politics,” said CAFOD spokesperson Claire Kirk. “We are very happy to work with agencies of all faiths not only in times of emergency, but in our on-going work to eradicate poverty around the world.”

This is also the first monetary support given by Christian Aid to Islamic Relief. Nick Guttman, head of emergencies with Christian Aid, said: “The priority in any disaster relief work is to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable people receive aid quickly and efficiently.|TOP|

“Christian Aid works with people of all faith and none, and is delighted that we can offer Islamic Relief the assistance they need.”

UK Manager of Islamic Relief, Waseem Yaqub, recently returned from a visit to Pakistan where he had the opportunity to witness the joint aid initiatives of the various faith groups.

“This is all really encouraging,” he said. “It just shows the faiths working together, which is what it should be all about.”

The DEC has already raised nearly £15 million but is still appealing form more money to reach particularly those affected in remote regions of the disaster zone.