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FROM THE FIELD

The Other Front Line in Pakistan: How The International Community Can Help Save Pakistan
27 May 2009 17:02:00 GMT
 Source: World Vision - USA
Jeff Hall

Website: Website: http://www.worldvision.org/press

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The Other Front Line in Pakistan: How The International Community Can Help Save Pakistan By Jeff Hall, World Vision

My colleagues recently told me about an extraordinary woman they had been training to advocate for the women and children in her community. When I went to meet her, and she told me her story, I realized that she is on the front-line in the true battle for Pakistan's future. She is fighting for the education, healthcare and accountability that are necessary for lasting peace.

Not long ago, on a cool Thursday morning, Pashmina Haqqani* visited the desperately poor village of Chana, in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. She was going for battle, but not the kind that has dominated the headlines. Her battle was not to be fought with weapons of war, but rather, with persuasion and persistence.

She had heard about a widow named Hawa Omar who was not sending her 10-year-old son Jamshed to school. Pashmina knew the kind of fate that could await Jamshed if he did not attend school. Boys like him are the perfect target for militant recruiters, who supplement the income of parents who surrender children to their care.

Chana village borders a particularly volatile tribal area in North West Frontier Province, much like Mingora and the greater Swat Valley, which has become the focus of so much recent media attention. It is here in Chana that the forces of moderation subtly confront the forces of extremism. It is here that the forces of pluralism and dialogue confront the forces of oppression and dogma. Finally, it is here that individuals like Pashmina fight the battles that will ultimately determine Pakistan's fate: battles to save children from premature death, to ensure that every child has a chance at a decent education and that government responds to the needs of its people.

This is the other front line in Pakistan.

The line is thin and hard to see. It lies in the few feet that separate Pashmina and a belligerent village elder. It lies between Pashmina and a group of women who have never voted before, and wonder if they really can. And it lies between Pashmina and a mother trying to decide whether to send her child to school in a village far away from world's watchful eyes. The militants who have taken up arms in Kandahar or Swat have already made a choice. But there are millions more peaceful, hopeful Pakistanis who are desperate for a long-term solution to the violent, impoverished life they are currently living.

On that Thursday morning, as Pashmina entered Chana village, she reflected upon the changes she'd seen since she and her team of community activists began working there six months ago.

She remembered her first day, when the elders of the village flatly refused to allow a women's group to be formed. "We're just getting together for tea," Pashmina insisted. It was a tea party that eventually led sixty women to form a political action plan to end corruption in the village school.

She remembered when she began organizing for a village health committee to monitor the quality of services provided to the women in the community." Our village doesn't need that kind of organization," said the leader of a main political party.

"Well, then I suppose no one will show up for our meetings," answered Pashmina. Since then, the committee has held two public rallies to educate the community on primary health care and improve the quality of the local clinic. Hundreds attended.

Later, she showed up with a team of civil servants in order to register voters. "Leave," threatened a man invested in the political status quo," or some harm could come to you."

Pashmina stayed. And to date she and her team have registered more than 2,000 new voters. Nearly three-quarters of these are women. Pashmina's team has also helped to repair schools, replant deforested hillsides and provide livelihoods to families all across the area.

As Pashmina left Chana, she smiled. After meeting with the elders (the very ones who had greeted her so coldly a few months ago), they decided to contribute to a common fund that would purchase uniforms and supplies for Hawa's son Jamshed.

If the international community wants to win the battle for the hearts and minds of the Pakistani people, it must show Pashmina-and the hundreds of thousands of her countryfolk who have fled their homes amid attacks in the North West Frontier Province in the past weeks-that it is committed to fighting on the front lines of their long-term battle against poverty and injustice.

*Her name has been changed to protect her identity.

Jeff Hall works with World Vision, an international aid agency, as the deputy director for advocacy in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He is currently working in Islamabad, Pakistan.


[ 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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