A LEADING British equine welfare charity is calling on horse and pony enthusiasts in Worcester-shire and Herefordshire to help its cause.

The Brooke is organising a life-saving donkey train to take desperately needed food and medicines to Pakistan's earthquake victims stranded in remote regions.

Blocked and damaged roads mean that many villages are now unreachable by land and helicopter operations are becoming increasingly difficult because of the appalling winter weather.

The Brooke is co-ordinating with local relief authorities and the Pakistan Army to transport donkeys - and horses and mules - to Balakot, in Pakistan's North-West Frontier, which will be the centre of operations for the donkey train.

Brooke vets will lead the donkeys to the areas where aid is needed. As well as carrying supplies, the vets will treat livestock and working equine animals in need of help, establishing temporary field clinics as necessary. The donkey train will also transport people needing urgent medical treatment.

The Brooke's plans result from a reconnaissance mission to Balakot to assess how its expertise could be used to help people restore their lives as quickly as possible.

In addition to running the donkey train, the Brooke has been asked to help people in Balakot build temporary shelters for their animals.

The Brooke is also establishing a mobile clinic to treat working equines and livestock at Shinkiari, just south of Balakot.

"In centuries gone by donkeys, mules and horses were the only means of transport and now, once again, we are depending on these animals to take aid to communities in desperate need," said Mike Baker, the Brooke's chief executive. "In particular, the veterinary aid our donkey train will bring to these stricken areas will be of paramount importance. Working animals and livestock are among the only possessions that many of the earthquake victims have left.

"In normal circumstances each horse or donkey alone provides an income for around six people - now they are of even greater importance as families struggle to rebuild their lives with winter fast closing in.

"As we are a charity we are always desperate for funds and I hope that people from Worcester-shire and Herefordshire will be able to contribute to our work."

To support the charity, contact the website www.thebrooke.org or telephone 0207 9300210.

"Cash is always desperately needed, especially as we hope to expand our work caring for horses into more countries such as Kenya in East Africa."

The Brooke has had experience of helping such communities in the past when it sent emergency veterinary teams to the Gujarat region of India in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in 2001, and in 2002 its Pakistan-based vets tended to stricken animals of Afghan refugees in camps on the Pakistan border.

Since 1934, when it was first founded in the dusty streets of Cairo, the Brooke Hospital for Animals has transformed the health of millions of working equines.

The charity reaches more than 500,000 working equine animals each year in Egypt, Jordan, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, ensuring they are healthy, happy and fit for work - and benefiting the several million family members who are supported by the labours of their animals.

HOW THE BROOKE IS HELPING IN PAKISTAN

THE Brooke is the largest animal welfare organisation in Pakistan, and has been in operation in the country since 1991.

Last year it helped a quarter of a million working horses, donkeys and mules across five regions of the country, including Peshawar, a large city close to affected regions, and over the border at Jalalabad, in Afghanistan.

The Brooke teams of highly-specialised mobile vets work to improve the health and welfare of hundreds of thousands of working horses, donkeys and mules across the developing world - animals that form the backbone of the economy for countless poor communities.

The Brooke's main thrust of its operations is providing free veterinary care and education programmes via a network of mobile units and it reachesmore than 500,000 working equine animals each yearensuring they are healthy, happy and fit for work.