Two ActionAid mobile medical clinics treating thousands of people displaced by the fighting in northwest
Pakistan may have to close because of a lack of funds.
The clinics, which cost around £500 a day to run, have so far provided specialist medical care to 4,000 people living with host
families, but may have to close by the end of the month unless more money can be found.
More than 2.5 million people have left their homes after fighting between the Pakistan army and
Taliban militants. They are either living in camps or with host families and are in urgent need of food, healthcare and medicines.
The doctors, nurses and midwife from the Shifa College of
Medicines and Nursing in Islamabad have volunteered their services for the ActionAid clinics, so the main cost is supplying medicines.
“ActionAid is currently funding the clinics and
other emergency relief work from the Pakistan country budget, however we need more funds to continue carrying out this vital work and also to help people once they are able to return home,” said
Fikre Zewdie, ActionAid’s Country Director in Pakistan.
Last week ActionAid was one of nine major international aid agencies which warned that their effort to reach over a million
victims of the fighting in Swat valley of Pakistan was under threat due to a lack of funds. The agencies face a shortfall in excess of £26m ($42m).
If the clinics close people like
Raheela Bibi, 21, will go untreated. “I had a miscarriage on my way from Dir to Swabi while being displaced,” she said. “I almost fainted with loss of blood and weakness. It was so
painful that I could hardly breathe. At a host family, I remained bed ridden for a week without medication. Knowing about this medical camp, I came here with pain and cramps. The facility is a
blessing for me as a female nurse examined and a doctor attended me. They gave me medicines and advice. I am now confident that I will get better soon.”
ActionAid is also providing
food, emergency relief items, and school books and equipment to thousands of displaced people and has hired teachers to get children back to school.
A woman, who fled from her home after violence in Lalgarh, stands behind a classroom of a school which was converted into a makeshift refugee camp at Pirakata near Lalgarh, some ...
