ACT Alliance

They have never been standing in queues for food before. The proud population of Swabi and Mardan Districts of the North West Frontier Province in Pakistan ask for jobs instead. And they stay at host families rather than living in the camps that the displaced people have been offered. 3,5 million people have been uprooted, caused by the Pakistani military attacks on milts groups, but have the international society forgotten them? ACT International has issued an appeal on 5 mill. USD. After eight weeks of emergency, the humanitarian organizations struggle to give education, livelihood, and protection.  Funding has been slow.

The displaced population came from the chilly hills and down to the heath. The change have been too much for many of them An ACT team, visiting a camp found children at about 3 years of age suffering from a very high fever and was walking around in the extreme heat without shoes. ACT member Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) reports that six out of ten children need nutritional support.

No quick fix

“They are really depressed”, Felix Dennis Joseph says. He is the deputy director of Church World Service P/A in Pakistan. “Many of them have never been out of their village before, and have no experience of tropical climate.  The children get skin deceases because of the heat and the sun. They have no clean water. There are also ethnic and social frictions”, he says.

And nobody can tell them how long they are going to be here. “There is no quick fix”, Felix Dennis Joseph says.

They want to work

Heavy shelling, bombardment and continual cross fire in the area compelled civilians to flee their homes, but the military is now widening its operations and more people becomes affected. ACT members Church World Service (CWS) and NCA are distributing food packages, and many have found it humiliating to receive food like that. Some refused for days, while the family was starving. They have never been driven away from home, like this before, and find it hard to adapt to the new life style. They are now demanding education for the children, and work for themselves. So the area can “have some progress”, as one of them tell ACT emergency workers.

During the attacks, the families have been exposed to real war scenes with heavy shelling and cross fire. Especially the children are traumatized, and there is a need for psycho-social therapy. That is one of the offers from ACT members working in the area. The new displaced people want to have a job, rather than getting handouts form the emergency agencies. A woman says: “Give the provide male members some small jobs, even working with them in distribution points, for registration of IDPs, and in medical supply centers, and pay us daily wages, then we will have some money in hand and can buy clothing and medicines for our families.”

She also shares her concerns over income earning potential once they return to their destroyed fields, hospitals, educational institutions, and homes.

Acute needs

The humanitarian needs among IDPs are acute. The Government has requested the humanitarian community to provide assistance during the relief and recovery phases, including food and nutrition assistance, shelter, water, sanitation facilities, primary healthcare and education. The majority of the displaced persons have taken refuge with family and friends, or in rented spaces. But they are spending much of their disposable income on rent, so there is very little left for food or other daily requirements. They are also living in temperatures of over 40 degrees so the risk of dehydration and disease is extremely high.

Shelter conditions of the IDPs in host communities are highly hazardous. The majority of IDP families are sheltered in one small room measuring 12x12 feet with no water and sanitation facilities. The poor shelter and hygiene conditions have caused a massive out break of scabies, gastroentitis, malaria, respiratory tract infections, traumatic disorders etc. Owing to shortage of food, the IDPs especially women and children are also severely suffering from anemia and malnutrition.

Interestingly, 70% of school going children of IDP families was getting regular education before their displacement to Swabi. However, in their present host communities, neither the families nor the host communities have essential resources to meet the educational needs of internally displaced children.