Birmingham youth volunteers help rebuild flood-hit village

Umair Suleman thought he understood climate change.

Like many young people, the 18-year-old had read about melting glaciers and rising temperatures. But standing on the Passu Glacier in northern Pakistan, surrounded by ice that has sustained communities for generations, changed his way of thinking.

“Climate change used to be a distant idea. But when you go to a village like that, you start to appreciate how dangerous of an issue it is,” he said.

Umair was one of a group of young volunteers from Birmingham who travelled thousands of miles to one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions in Pakistan, after raising almost £50,000 through community fundraising.

The group, aged between 18 and 25, travelled to the remote district of Ghizer in Gilgit-Baltistan with Birmingham charities Bahu Trust and Islamic Help.

For several days they lived alongside families in the mountain village of Tali Das, sharing meals and hearing first-hand accounts of lives reshaped by climate change.

“You wouldn’t think that this village has just been destroyed and they’re trying to rebuild. It was just a community of people smiling and all together,” Suleman said.

Residents there rebuilt their community after a glacial lake outburst flood forced them from their original homes.