Society girl turned activist Jemima Khan was in London early this week to urge support for a newly launched appeal in aid of children suffering in Afghanistan. Jemima, wife of former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan, has long supported the cause through her role as a UNICEF UK Special Representative For Children In Conflict and continues to draw attention to the plight of the youngsters in the wake of the military strikes.
“The children are now in increasing danger every day from the increased action in Afghanistan and from cold and hunger,” Jemima said at Tuesday’s inauguration of the appeal. “The situation was bad enough last winter. As many as 100,000 more Afghan children under five will die this winter if aid does not reach them in time. This is on top of 300,000 who already die every year of preventable causes such as measles, exposure, severe malnutrition or diarrhoea – a disease that could be cured with a 7p sachet of oral rehydration salts.
“UNICEF can do a great deal to prevent these deaths, but we need the public’s help,” says Jemima, who visited Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan in March. UNICEF’s Afghanistan Crisis Leaf Appeal distributed 5,000 real leaves in central London to encourage donations on their website, www.
UNICEF.org.uk.
Jemima is scheduled to return to her home in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad along with her two sons at the end of next week. Her work with UNICEF will carry on, however. “I visited the camps lots of times in Peshawar and if I can be of any help in distributing aid I will visit them again,” she says.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
