Despite all that we hear about tragedies in our connected world, it is often difficult to appreciate the magnitude of such events, particularly when they occur far away. Today I would like to share with you an October summary from Azmi Jafarey, our CIO, of the huge the scale of the flooding in Pakistan.

Ipswitch employees donated $13,500 toward the relief effort (through CARE), and Ipswitch double matched the donations with another $27,000.

Here is what Azmi wrote.

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I thought I would supplement what you have heard with some statistics about the Pakistan flood. The numbers are tough to comprehend. This BBC Dimensions map shows the magnitude of the area affected:

Pakistanis Directly Affected: 20,000,000+
(According to the UN this eclipses even in the 2004 Tsunami, 2005 Kashmir Earthquake and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake combined.)

Proportion of Pakistan now Submerged: 20% (One-Fifth) of the Country
(Greater than the size of all England, all Bangladesh, and some 140 different countries.)

Proportion of Pakistanis now Affected: 11% – 1 Out of Every 9 Pakistanis
(Greater than the entire population of Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Switzerland, and over 150 different countries.)

Pakistanis in Urgent Need of Food Relief: 6,000,000+
(Others need assistance too, these are life-threatened.)

Children at Risk of Disease: 3,500,000+
(Cholera outbreaks have already been reported.)

Pakistanis now Homeless: 2,000,000+
(In need of immediate shelter assistance.)

Pakistanis Reached by Relief Efforts: 500,000
(Compare to numbers above.)

Source: Professor Adil Najam’s blog site: Pakistan Flood Scale and Pakistan Flood Relief.

Professor Najam heads Boston University’s Pardee Center for the Study of The Longer-Range Future, and is also Professor of International Relations and Global Public Policy at BU.