Derbyshire: On Saturday 5th March 2022, Alishia Zafar, a British-Pakistani dental surgery student at the University of Leeds, utilised her platform as the President of the Pakistani Society to found and organise the National Pakistani Societies Charity Trek.
This is a historic event and is the first time ever that so many students from universities across the United Kingdom have joined together to raise funds for Pakistan’s water crisis. Around 40 universities joined this initiative and a total of over 400 students travelled to the Peak District National Park to take part in this fundraising challenge.
This hiking challenge symbolised the difficult journeys that many people in Pakistan undertake to collect water that is unsafe and contaminated because they have no other choice. The challenge involved walking on different terrains and helping each other through difficult parts of the route. Seeing how all the students came together and completed this challenge was truly remarkable. When asked, they explained that it was their drive to help the people in Pakistan that got them through this trek.
Collectively, they raised over £40,000 in the space of a few weeks. Alishia Zafar will be working with SKT Welfare to take these funds to Pakistan where they will build solar-powered water filtration plants in areas where there is no access to safe water. Each plant costs £10,000 to install and each one benefits up to 9,000 people.
This event has been a great success and they have exceeded their initial fundraising target which called for a celebration at the top of the peak where students raised Pakistan flags in the sky out of love, respect, and patriotism for their country. Alishia Zafar has planned to make this an annual fundraising initiative and hopes to support other great humanitarian causes through the National Pakistani Societies Charity Trek and through her other charity projects. Report by S M Irfan Tahir Photojournalist / Member National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Birmingham & Coventry Branch.
