Rafina is joining with the KYDS Foundation, a relatively new charity set up to provide a rehabilitation programme for women and children affected by the earthquake. It's quite a change from her work with Social Enterprise Berkshire. She leaves on 27 January, so we spoke to her as she is getting ready to leave. You’re off to Pakistan for quite a while, aren’t you? "For a minimum of three years. If I can stay there permanently I will do. I finish work on Friday." You’re helping with the aftermath of the earthquake.
"Yes - I spent Christmas and New Year there to do research and meet people. So I’ll be working with children who have been affected by the earthquake and widows in particular." It’s quite an upheaval to leave Britain in this way… "I don’t have any family here. I had a grandmother who passed away just before the earthquake so I came back then. But I felt I needed to be more involved - along with a lot of other people I gave money during Ramadan, but I felt there was so much more I could do. You hear stories about people who had gone to the Tsunami and done a lot, and I wanted to be one of them. And this charity came up, the Kyds’ foundation, which is set up specifically for widows and children. 100% of the money raised goes to them. No salaries, no administration costs." If you can, describe something of what you saw out there. "I didn’t know what to expect. I can still remember this: when we first got there in the morning, about seven o’clock, we stopped our car to look at the village camps. It was cold, dull and grey. I saw a boy walking with a gallon of water, wearing a jumper and some slippers. He put the gallon down, put his hands in his mouth to warm them up, then carried on walking. We were still in our van so we didn’t feel the cold but we could see it. "Then we went higher up in the mountains to get a true picture of what it was like outside the city, and the first thing you smelled was the bad smell. You could tell there were still cattle or bodies buried under the properties. You could just see the rooftops, it was shocking. There were still quite a few people with infected wounds. All of this made me feel really ill. "But people were just getting on with life, they were very welcoming. They’d ask you to come and have a cup of tea, just like they were before. They’d offer you food and everything, but when they were talking, the odd tear would come out." To what extent is your Muslim faith a reason for you going out there? "Yes, it is because of that. I only started practicing Islam about three years ago. Since then I find I’m doing a lot more for the community. Your faith does encourage you to help people in the community, to help people in general." | 
