Every evening, Zaheer Sharif, a real estate broker from South Windsor, gathers with his family to watch the news, desperate for the latest updates from Pakistan.

They're not watching American stations, which have paid less attention to the devastating flooding in Pakistan than other recent disasters, such as the massive earthquake that rocked Haiti in January.

"We watch the local TV stations from Pakistan right now, and we look at the pictures and feel glad we're not there. But at the same time, our hearts are breaking," said Sharif, who is the president of the Pakistani-American Association of Connecticut (PAACT), a nonprofit organization that serves about 20,000 Pakistanis living in the state.

"They don't have any shelter, any place they can call home. One fourth of the country is still submerged, and it has been five weeks now. It has been devastating," Sharif said.

"All of us have family and friends over there and, directly or indirectly, all (Pakistani) people here have been affected."

Immediately after the flooding began, PAACT held a fundraiser at a Berlin mosque, raising more than $70,000. Much of it went to Save the Children, a Connecticut-based charity that has long been a presence in Pakistan, a nation of more than 170 million. Money has also gone to the Edhi Foundation, a Pakistan-based group that works to improve health and welfare.

PAACT is planning another fundraiser for later this month, Sharif said, and is continuing to funnel donations to charities on the ground in Pakistan.

On Thursday in Hartford, PAACT will participate in a roundtable discussion about the flooding hosted by U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District.

Local Pakistani Americans work at Pfizer Inc., which has pledged to financially support the efforts of the United Nations Children's Fund in Pakistan.

The pharmaceutical company also has five facilities in Pakistan. Six employees relocated there from their homes but all are safe, according to a company spokesman. Pfizer's facilities were not impacted.

The flooding began in July with heavy monsoon rains. The United Nations said 2,000 people have been killed. Another 20 million more were left homeless or injured, more than in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and this year's earthquake in Haiti combined.

"That's like if you took all of New England and just kept going down to Maryland," Sharif said. "That area has been wiped out. This is not going away - it is the largest disaster on Earth right now."

Local Pakistani Americans and organizations involved in the relief effort, such as Save the Children and AmeriCares, are also planning to attend the roundtable discussion Thursday to talk about their concerns and provide updates on their efforts, according to Murphy's office.

Save the Children, which has its headquarters in Westport, has been working in Pakistan for three decades, providing day-to-day medical and education services and responding to major disasters, including this summer's flooding and the 2005 earthquake.

"We are working across the flood zone right now," said Kate Conradt, a spokeswoman based at Save the Children's Washington, D.C., office. "Our obvious focus is on lifesaving assistance at this point. We are providing shelter material - that's tents, that's shelter kits - and hygiene kits, which include soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, diapers and baby wipes.

"We're working in all four provinces that have been affected by the flooding and we've reached 305,000 people already. But our big concern is the basic needs of life - food, shelter and clean water."

Floodwaters are only now starting to recede, with some areas still inaccessible by land.

"It's a scramble - there are still communities who are isolated by water and they can only be reached by helicopters," Conradt said.

Eventually, Save the Children plans to scale back its emergency response and work to restore education programs for children. But for now, it must ensure that children and their families can simply stay alive.

"They have become destitute where they may have been impoverished before," Conradt said. "So it's critical to get them the things they need just to get themselves restarted again.

"It's going to be a very, very long process for these people to recover from this."

m.collette@theday.com

j.mcdermott@theday.com

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To help, send donations to:

Pakistani American Association of CT

PO Box 769

South Windsor, CT 06074

paact2000.org

savethechildren.org