Rebecca Duffett spoke with Dr Vicky Lavy of the Christian Medical Fellowship

Dr Vicky Lavy

More than 1,500 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands stranded by flooding triggered by the annual monsoon rains in Pakistan. The Christian Medical Fellowship work in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Looking to help support two hospitals in the affected areas, they raised over £25,000. To find out more Rebecca Duffett spoke with Dr Vicky Lavy.

Rebecca: Can you start by telling us what the Christian Medical Fellowship does?

Dr Vicky Lavy: The Christian Medical Fellowship in England is an organisation supporting Christian doctors throughout Britain; helping us to encourage one another in our faith, in our work and promoting Christian values in medicine. My part of it is encouraging British doctors to be involved and interested in work in poorer countries around the world.

Rebecca: You're not an aid agency are you?

Dr Vicky Lavy: We're not. Giving relief isn't our usual business, but we're part of an international umbrella organisation that links up similar fellowships in about 80 countries around the world. We've got brothers and sisters, other Christian doctors all around the world that we're connected to. When those doctors are facing particular challenges or crisis, we like to try and support them and help them to do the work that they're called to do.

Rebecca: You've recently sent some money to Pakistan. Can you just remind us of what happened in the country and the areas that were affected by flooding?

Dr Vicky Lavy: Pakistan has had the worse floods in 100 years I believe; and so it's been a completely devastating crisis that's hit the country. I understand that a third of the country's land area has been flooded. Millions of people have lost their homes and their land and they won't be able to grow crops. There's a lot of disease spreading because of that. It's been desperate. I've heard aid workers have said that it's the most challenging aid operation in recent times.

Rebecca: What are the main problems people are facing?

Dr Vicky Lavy: People have lost their homes and they've had to move away from their own communities and land. They've had to leave with absolutely nothing, just a few possessions. They're living in camps which are temporary. They're living in very close quarters so disease spreads very quickly. Diarrhoeal diseases are common; they're one of the most difficult things developing in floods when water sources get contaminated. People are in a desperate situation.

Rebecca: You've been sending money to two hospitals. Could you tell us about those two institutions you've been supporting?

Dr Vicky Lavy: One of them is called Pennell Memorial Christian Hospital, and it was founded in 1892; it was one of those pioneer Christian mission hospitals in Pakistan. It was a real light in a place where no-one had ever heard the gospel. It was started off by a pioneer missionary. It's great to be associated with one of these places of long Christian heritage. However that's a hospital which is now in a very difficult area; it's right on the edge of what's called the Federali administered tribal areas, which borders with Afghanistan, and that's where the Taliban are most active. They're actually in a dangerous place. The medical director that we're helping can't leave the hospital without an armed guard because it's such a dangerous place. He says that other NGOs are often afraid to work in that area. It's an amazing hospital; a courageous hospital doing great work in that difficult and dangerous situation.

The other we're supporting is called Kunhar Christian hospital; that's a little bit further north; also in a flood affected area. That's a hospital which was started in the year 2000 by a local Pakistani doctor who had seen the need for help in a very remote area where there was very little medical care. He was working near there since the 80's and really felt called to start a hospital in this particular place. It's in a mountainous area where there wasn't much help for people. He has built up this hospital that's really serving its community and is very well loved in that community there.

Rebecca: You raised over £25,000 for those two very worthy causes. How was that money raised?

Dr Vicky Lavy: We've been overwhelmed by how much our members want to give. We put out an appeal to our membership here in Britain. We have 4,500 Christian doctors who are members of our fellowship and 1,000 medical students.