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FROM THE FIELD

Life difficult for Pakistanis fleeing conflict
15 May 2009 18:43:00 GMT
 Source: Church World Service
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Internally displaced children, fleeing a military offensive in the Swat valley, hold classes inside a tent at a camp in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. CWS is providing tents, blankets, and food for some of the displaced families.
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Internally displaced children, fleeing a military offensive in the Swat valley, hold classes inside a tent at a camp in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. CWS is providing tents, blankets, and food for some of the displaced families.
Photo: REUTERS/Mian Khursheed, courtesy http://www.alertnet.org/

Background

•  Pakistan violence

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May 15, 2009

NEW YORK--Church World Service staff responding to the humanitarian crisis in Pakistan precipitated by recent fighting between Pakistani military forces and Taliban insurgents in the northwest part of the country are providing a glimpse into the on-the-ground realities of the situation.

"Children without shoes walk for miles to reach a camp without adequate facilities or the overcrowded home of a poor relative," said a report issued May 14 by CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan.

"An elderly man struggles to travel the distance and finds that his destination cannot offer him the required medical attention. A widowed mother, whose husband died from injuries caused in the crossfire between Taliban and army, escapes with her young children to find that she cannot receive food or milk for her children.

"These are not the stories of particular individuals but rather the living reality that hundreds of thousands of people face. Leaving all possessions and without money, nearly one million individuals find themselves without the means to survive, thus, pressurizing the host communities who themselves struggle daily to feed and educate their children, to care for ill family members, and to keep a roof over their heads."

This week the first trucks dispatched from CWS to the affected areas reached their designated distribution points, bringing tents, blankets and food packages.

Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan is working with local partners Sungi Development Foundation and Civil Society Human and Institutional Development Program in distributing 300 food packages that meet international Sphere minimum standards for a family of five as well as 230 shelter kits. The relief is being distributed among affected displaced persons, some to families in camps and others with host families in the districts of Mardan and Swabi. Shelter kits include tents, blankets, groundsheets and tarpaulins.

The timeframe for Church World Service's initial relief response is about six weeks.

Church World Service is responding as part of a coordinated effort by Action by Churches Together members in Pakistan.

An assessment by CWS partner Sungi Development Foundation of Mardan, where approximately 2,354 families live, indicates that among the things the displaced need are housing, food, child education, and health and hygiene items.

"Women and children, particularly, face unhygienic conditions that result in preventable diseases," the report said. According to a May 14 CNN report, physicians in the camps are already reporting that diarrhea and the skin disease scabies are on the rise.

Other areas report similar needs. CWS staff working as part of an assessment team in Mardan and Swabi reported that in the Swabi displacement camp, "at least 250 children were barefoot and had walked with their parents the long distances; children approached the team requesting shoes."

"The team observed that individuals, particularly children, suffer from the extreme heat and desperately require safe drinking water. Elders approached the team confessing that they know they have put pressure on the host communities and family to whom they have turned, but they blame the government for taking military action without providing the innocent people enough time to leave their homes before the attack started," CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan reported.

CWS- Pakistan/Afghanistan deputy director Mansoor Raza will visit the targeted areas in the coming days to monitor the situation and review the response plan.

Beyond this immediate relief assistance, CWS has requested to serve as a Humanitarian Accountability Project/Sphere focal point for training and support to partners engaged in the current crisis response. CWS, which shapes its food aid and other disaster responses according to international quality and accountability standards as set out by the Sphere Project [http://www.sphereproject.org/content/view/31/84/lang,English/] and the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP-International) [http://www.hapinternational.org/], served as HAP and Sphere focal point during the Cyclone Nargis response in Myanmar.

CWS's Mansehra health clinic also is pursuing expansion of its community health center activities in order to make available several mobile health clinics to serve displaced people and host families in the region.

How to help Contributions to support Church World Service emergency response and recovery efforts may be made online, by phone (800.297.1516), or sent to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515.

Media Contacts: Lesley Crosson, 212-870-2676 lcrosson@churchworldservice.org Jan Dragin, 24/7, 781-925-1526 jdragin@gis.net




[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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An internally displaced man, who was injured fleeing a military offensive in the Swat valley, lies on a bed at a hospital in Mardan, about 100 km (60 miles) north west ...


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Last updated:Fri May 15 19:39:55 2009