Credit: WHO/Chris Black
	Yasin lost his father and sister to the earthquake. Here, he is waiting to go home after receiving treatment in Muzaffarabad

On 8 October a powerful earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck a border area of India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Entire villages were destroyed and tens of thousands of people were killed or injured. Survivors lost family, friends, livelihoods and their homes and must cope with their injuries and re-building new lives.

Shook-Pui Lee-Martin, newly elected BC O.M.S. President, thought our Badminton Club could help and came up with the idea of holding a friendly internal tournament to raise cash for Kashmir. Members discussed the best way of organizing such a competition. At the 10 November regular training session, doubles teams were formed and competed for the better part of two hours. One member donated a trophy, another provided Mars bars. 

At the end of the evening, BC members made contributions to benefit earthquake victims. Other players who were not able to attend gave money subsequently. CHF 445 has been raised so far. Thanks very much to all who helped make the tournament a success and participated in this fund-raising drive. There was no clear winner of the tournament, due to changing teams and a few early departures. But we hope the true winners will be a few victims of this massive natural disaster, for whom we hope to relieve a little bit of their immense suffering. 

M. Henry