Chela Bandi is a little village high in the mountains of Muzaffarabad. It looks down into the vast valleys of Kashmir.

It is home to 38 year-old Arshad Rashid, the field co-ordinator for Islamic Relief in Bagh. He takes me through the ruins of what was once his home village.

Over 100 of his relatives perished. Many tried escaping from their houses but the force of the quake thrust them back into their homes to their ultimate fate.

“When they felt the quake they tried getting out but they were pushed back into their homes,” he said.

On the day of the disaster Arshad was busy delivering food as part of Islamic Relief’s Ramadhan programme in a town many miles from his village. He heard the news while travelling to his destination of Forward Kahuta but it didn’t stop him delivering his aid.

“We were on our way when the disaster happened, but we still gave out food for families, then we heard the news that a school had collapsed.”

Once his duty was over, Arshad made the gruelling 17 hour walk across the daunting Kashmiri terrain to his village as many of the roads became inaccessible by car.

This is the second disaster to hit Arshad. A civil engineer by profession, he was forced to migrate from Indian administered Kashmir in the early 1990’s and now finds he needs to rebuild.

But despite his personal tragedy he is heavily involved in Islamic Relief’s aid effort which is in full swing.

The ruins of a girls' school

As we walk together through the village we stop at a girls' school which lies in utter ruins. On its rooftop which is now at ground level scores of school bags lay scattered.

He picks up a calculator and, inside, the name 'Asma' is written. She must have been one of 150 girls who were crushed to death when their school collapsed.

Every so often I come upon a random slipper or shoe. Whoever they belonged to, they were probably trying to escape for their lives, it maybe all that remains as a sign of their existence.

Breaking the fast

Chela Bandi is sadly typical of the villages which were destroyed in this earthquake. Arshad Rashid’s story is not unique, but neither is the determination of the survivors to carry on working and helping others.

Despite having very little food and possessions left, the time to break the fast approaches and villagers insist that we stay and share the very little that they have.

It makes me wonder how much we are really willing to share the abundance that we have.

Report by Jamsheed Din, IR correspondent in Pakistan.