VOLUNTEERS from Nelson are preparing to fly out to Indonesia to help with the aid effort.

Charity Muslim Global Relief is sending a team to the stricken country, where 80,000 people are thought to have died. As well as two volunteers, the organisation hopes to send clothing and blankets donated by people across East Lancashire.

Many people have given money, offered time, and even volunteered to go out to the Indian Ocean area to help.

Finance manager Muhammad Farooq Bashir said: "We've held collections at the mosques and people are ringing up to donate by credit card, or coming in with cash. People have been asking to go out and help."

Muslim Global Relief is already helping people on the island of Sri Lanka, and their workers have found people living there are worried about what will happen when the aid agencies and the world's media leave.

Muhammad said: "We have distributed food and milk powder for babies, clothing and water. Everyone is living in tents at the moment.

"All the government hospitals in the region are destroyed, 50 per cent of the streets are destroyed, the fishing boats are destroyed. These people have no livelihoods.

"They are worried about their immediate future, but they are also worried about what is going to happen once the aid agencies pull out. We need to help them start to be self dependent."