Hope for parched Afghans

Pakistani student Aqil Rashid said he started off last year with Dh1,000 of his Eid money gift and has since collected $10,000 (almost Dh37,000) that will be used to bankroll some of the targeted 15 or so wells in small towns in Afghanistan.

Besides going door-to-door, Rashid has also signed up on online social networking site Twitter (twitter.com/aqilrashid) to keep residents updated and interested in donating.

"I feel thirsty when I'm fasting, which is only for a part of a day. For the poor, it's like that every day, all day, for their whole life," said Rashid.

He hands over the funds to a Dubai representative of Roshan, an Afghan telecom company leading the aid project.

"It's an easy life in Dubai, but lots of people out there are doing really bad. Each well can give water to around 1,000 people on average and costs about $2,000 (Dh7,340) to build. That's only $2 (Dh7.34) per person."

Rashid has also worked on several other humanitarian projects like Dubai Cares, Clean Up Dubai, Terry Fox Run, Médecins Sans Frontières and Make a Wish Foundation, said his father Safdar.

Rashid is also interested in raising funds for a project to help provide free open heart surgery to needy children.