By Ryan Clark
CHS Communications Director                                

Aysha Afzal is in her first year of UK’s master’s in Speech-Language Pathology program in Communication Sciences and Disorders.  

She is also Pakistani — and forgive her if she seems a bit distracted as of late.

Deadly floods have been ravaging the country all summer, leaving unprecedented impact, affecting more than 30 million people. One official described how one-third of the nation is underwater.

For Aysha’s family, things haven’t progressed to that level — yet. After professors in the department reached out to make sure her family was safe, Aysha responded.

“As some of you know, Pakistan is facing one of the worst climate change disasters in a decade,” she wrote in an email. “My family is safe at the moment, but conditions are getting worse day by day, so I do worry about them. It’s truly heartbreaking to see the people of Pakistan suffering every day.”

The Pakistani government is reporting that 15 percent of the county’s entire population have been affected by these storms, resulting in 1,000 deaths, more than 500,000 houses destroyed, and over 1 billion livestock deaths.

Islamic Relief USA is now collecting donations for Pakistani flood relief, which can be made here.

For something more local, UKY MSA, Kentucky’s Muslim Student Association, will be taking relief donations here: