The South Asia earthquake left communities in Pakistan devastated. Mawaz Khan, a cab office owner from Crawley, visited the mountain village where his parents were born to help in any way he could.

Mawaz Khan had spent many a happy holiday in the village of Timrota in Dhirkot where his parents were born.

So when the small community was devastated by the South Asia earthquake, leaving many families homeless and destitute, he knew he had to do something to help.

Father-of-three Mr Khan, 37, owner of United Cars in Pegler Way, Crawley, joined forces with his brother Abdul, who lives in Bolton, to raise £20,000 in just seven days to pay for supplies.

Days later Mr Khan was leading a convoy of 24 lorries from Islamabad airport along narrow, windy and mountainous roads to Dhirkot in a bid to provide thousands of homeless villagers with shelter.

The brothers spent three weeks in and around the mountain village, distributing 3,000 tents and much-needed medical supplies, blankets and food from the lorries.

They also set up a temporary field hospital, with two doctors and four nurses to treat minor injuries including cuts and broken bones.

Mr Khan said: "Dhirkot is where my roots are and it's where I go on holidays, so I couldn't just sit there. I had to go to do something hands-on.

"It's all right sending money but it's not quite the same as going out there and helping out yourself to ensure the aid gets to where it's really needed."

When he arrived, the full extent of the devastation quickly became all too clear.

Mr Khan said there was absolutely no infrastructure left in the devastated areas and the region would take years to rebuild.

He said: "At first you think the damage is not too bad. But when you get into the villages, you realise how much damage has been done.

"People with houses standing are scared of going back into them in case they tumble. There are no schools, no colleges and no hospitals. Everything is flat.

"I'm not really a very emotional person but when you get out there and see kids who don't know whether their parents are alive or dead or in hospital, it gets to you a bit.

"In one case, there were four children staying with their grandmother in Chala, a village five miles from Dhirkot.

"I gave them money and noticed one of the boys had a cleft palate, so I told the family I would be happy to pay for his operation as he had no parents.

"We came across lots of children who had legs and arms amputated. I would have loved to help them all but it was not feasible. One man heard calls coming from his wife under the rubble of his house but he couldn't do anything and eventually the cries for help stopped after five days."

The brothers raised the £20,000 from Pakistani communities in England.

When they arrived in Pakistan, they spent nine hours a day for the first five days at Islamabad airport collecting the supplies that they were to take over to Dhirkot.

Mr Khan said: "We were just sitting around the airport trying to get this stuff together. There were so many relief goods for different agencies coming through the airport that there just wasn't the manpower to deal with it quickly, so the whole thing was very time consuming. But it had to be done."

Pakistan's death toll has risen to 87,000. An estimated three million people are homeless in the earthquake zone and about 350,000 still need shelter to stop them freezing to death when the snows arrive next month.

Mr Khan said: "In the long term, the tents will be useless as the winter is not hospitable. We built a few small rooms in the village using sheets of corrugated iron and these will provide better shelter.

"We also left some money for the villagers to buy materials and build more of these rooms. As soon as the rains and snow come, all the houses teetering on the edge will be washed away."

Despite the earthquake killing hundreds of people in a five-mile radius covering Dhirkot and surrounding villages, people remained upbeat. Mr Khan said: "People were happy to see us. They were delighted we were there to help them. It cheered them up a bit but they have a bleak future. They are sad about what has happened but realise they just have to get on with things."

Mr Khan returned from the trip last week. His brother is still out there helping to oversee the construction of more iron shelters.

Mr Khan hopes to return to the village at the end of January with more supplies.

Anyone who wants to donate money for supplies should call Mr Khan on 07721 370193.