THE devastating earthquake, which ferociously struck the north-western state of Gujarat in India last Friday has resulted in appalling loss of life.

The suffering of the people, buried alive, has touched most of humanity, as the whole way of life of the victims changed in a matter of minutes.

While miracles are still occurring, in as much as some survivors are still being plucked out of the concrete rubble a week after the vicious event, there is realistically no hope for the great majority of people who were buried beneath their own homes and have not been dug out yet.

The massive tremor ripped homes and lives and one can only imagine what the survivors, who have lost their homes as well as their loved ones, are going through.

It is the helplessness we feel at not being able to do anything which is frustrating, especially when you can empathise with someone who cannot free the entombed members of their family, friends or neighbours, even when they know where they are buried.

The massive earthquake is the worst India has experienced in living memory and has completely destroyed the area round the epicentre, near the industrial city of Ahmedabad.

Much of the area pulverised by the earthquake is in Kutch, a sparsely populated and isolated expanse of desert and salt flats.

The earthquake was also strongly felt in neighbouring southern Pakistan, in particular, in the cities of Karachi and Hydrabad.

But mercifully, the number of dead in Pakistan has only reached double figures compared with the likely total of 50,000 in Gujarat State.

A friend, who returned to High Wycombe last weekend, was in Karachi on Friday and did not realise at first that his bed was being shaken by the earthquake.

It was only when he went outside and noticed that most of the neighbourhood in central Karachi was rushing out and praying for deliverance.

According to him, he did not see any damage to buildings in central Karachi, which is as far away to the west of the epicentre, as Ahmedabad is to the east.

International assistance is now beginning to pour in and it is hoped that it will reach the needy as soon as possible.

Even Pakistan, which does not see eye to eye with India on many things, has sent in a plane-load of tents and blankets as a gesture of sympathy with the victims, who are apparently gripped by a fear psychosis.

Many have chosen to spend bitterly cold nights in the open, rather than go back inside, even when their homes remain mostly intact.

The Indian authorities may have been catastrophically unprepared and slow in organising help after such a severe event but one should remember that we are dealing with a developing country, where infrastructure has yet to be built up.

One must also remember the scale of the devastation and the number of people affected, which would not have spared the emergency services in the area either.

Gujarat is home to the extended families of many British Indians and East African Asians.

The communities in Britain have already started to collect funds for the victims of the earthquake.

Sewa International is organising a large meeting of the fundraisers in Brent this week, which has the backing of Brent and Ealing borough councils, among others.

The meeting will assess the type of help required by the survivors on a short and long-term basis and hopefully, the appeals will be answered not only by the Asian community but also by all the people who can empathise with the victims.

Just think of what would happen to us, if such a calamity fell upon us while we are trying to go about our normal business.

Therefore, please help the appeals for funds with a generous spirit.

Sewa International can be contacted on 0800 447799.