In the cause of Pakistan’s Internally Displaced Persons, you can help by making sadaqah (charity) to either of the following organizations: Islamic Relief Hidaya Foundation United Nation High Commision Refugees The Zakat Foundation Unicef.org
More and more Pakistani displaced move to camps as needs grow
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, June 9 (UNHCR) – Unlike many emergencies, the vast majority of people displaced by the upsurge in fighting in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, and Lower Dir and Buner districts have found shelter, not in camps, but with host families or in communal buildings such as schools. As the conflict enters its sixth week and the number of displaced continues to rise, overcrowding and the shortage of resources is becoming acute. UNHCR is seeking to ease the congestion by expanding camps and by providing assistance to host families.
Growing numbers of displaced “feel that they cannot stay forever as guests in host families, who themselves are often quite poor,” explained UNHCR field officer Shankar Chauhan. The result, he said, is that “more and more . . . are starting to move to camps.”
An estimated 235,000 people are staying in 21 organized camps in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), according to local authorities. This includes more than 148,000 people who fled their homes over the past five weeks. In addition, some 100,000 people are staying in camp-like situations in schools and other government buildings. With the lifting of the curfew on Tuesday in Chakdara, in Malakand, more people are expected to arrive in safe areas.
Some new arrivals at camps report host families running short of money. Others say they have been staying in schools in villages where they received only limited assistance. When schools reopen in August, many displaced people staying there will also be forced to move on.
Saif is a resident of the Swat Valley town of Mingora. He arrived with his wife and three sons in Larama camp on June 3 after fleeing shelling in his home area. For 15 days, he stayed with cousins in a school in Gujergari, in Mardan district. “We were about three to four families in a class room, sleeping on mats on the floor,” he recalled.
“At the beginning of our stay, villagers were bringing us food. But after two or three days they stopped. I had to borrow money from my cousins to be able to buy food at the market for my family.”
Privacy was also a problem. “We decided to leave. Our cousins gave us some money to take a bus to come here in Larama camp, in Peshawar.”
To address the space shortage for displaced people like Saif, UNHCR is seeking land to develop additional camps. Two new camps which opened last week have already almost reached full capacity. New arrivals are being directed to the larger Jalozai camp, Nowshera. It is now hosting around 97,000 displaced people, including 52,000 who arrived since early May.
Others are being directed to Yar Hussain camp in Swabi district which currently is home to 29,000 people. In Yar Hussain alone, 1,170 new internally displaced people were registered on Monday. The two camps are being expanded continuously to accommodate new arrivals.
In addition, UNHCR is exploring the possibility of providing shelter kits for displaced people staying with host families. A technical working group is developing a prototype kit, and the project will be launched in rural areas where families have more land or gardens where the kits can be used.
The project is a joint effort between UNHCR, UN-Habitat, World Vision, Norwegian Refugee Council, Catholic Relief Services, and Relief International. In addition, UNHCR continues to work with UN-Habitat to distribute tents to people staying with host families. More than 3,500 tents have been distributed to date.
On Wednesday, UNHCR and local partner agency, Sarhad Rural Support Programme, will start distributing relief items to displaced people staying in schools, host families and rented accommodations in Charssada and Nowshera districts. Some 84,000 people in Charssada and 54,000 people in Nowshera will receive relief items such as mats, kitchen sets, plastic sheeting and jerry cans.
UNHCR wants to scale up its assistance to people staying outside of camps, and is procuring more relief items. But it urgently needs funds to buy more supplies. UNHCR still requires US$67 million for the operation in Pakistan until the end of the year. This figure may need to be revised if the number of displaced rises.
By Hélène Caux in Peshawar
and Ariane Rummery in Islamabad, Pakistan
Pictures courtesy of Boston Globe’s The Big Picture
Pakistani girls stand near their tents at night May 31, 2009 in Jalozai camp, 15 k from Peshawar, Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
Pakistani children wait for hours in line for dinner at the Yar Hussain camp June 1, 2009 in Swabi, Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
A boy stands by as Pakistani men line up to register for ID cards at the Chota Lahore refugee camp, at Swabi, in northwest Pakistan, Wednesday, May 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
Boys, internally displaced from the Pakistan Army's offensive against the Taliban, in Swat and Buner, play on a swing at a relief camp on May 18, 2009 in Swabi, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
Internally displaced children scramble to get a piece of ice being handed out by aid workers at the Chota Lahore relief camp on May 20, 2009 in Swabi, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
A Pakistani girl peers over part of a makeshift tent in Chota Lahore Refugee Camp in Swabi, Pakistan on Wednesday, May 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Displaced Pakistani boys play on the ruins of a former Afghan refugee house in Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, June 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A displaced girl looks out from her tent in Shah Mansour refugee camp, in northwest Pakistan, Tuesday, June 9, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pakistani boys play in the dirt next to their tents in Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, June 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pakistani children relax in a playground at the Yar Hussain camp June 1, 2009 in Swabi, Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
Boys sell tomatoes while sitting roadside in Mardan, Pakistan on June 6, 2009. (REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro)
Girls watch through a hole in the kitchen tent to see when the food will be ready June 2, 2009 at Jalozai camp in Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
A girl stands next to her tent as wind and rain pound the massive tent city June 2, 2009 at Jalozai camp, 15km from Peshawar, Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
A boy uses a sheet as a sail during a blustery storm on June 2, 2009 at Jalozai camp in Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
A girl, who fled the Swat valley region, bites on a piece of fabric while standing with other children early morning at the UNHCR Yar Hussain camp in Swabi district in Pakistan on June 7, 2009. (REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro)
A boy looks away as grieving family members and friends surround the casket of Umer Amin, age 23, at his funeral June 7, 2009 in the village of Phoolgrah, just outside of Islamabad, Pakistan. Amin was a security policeman killed during the previous night's bomb blast attacking a police emergency helpline. The suicide blast which killed two police officers and wounding 3 was the latest in a series of attacks on civilian and security targets seen as retribution by the Taliban for Pakistan's and on-going military operations. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
A displaced girl does the washing in a river next to her tent at the Chota Lahore refugee camp, at Swabi, in northwest Pakistan, Friday, May 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Boys, wearing headbands inscribed with the shahada, the Muslim profession of faith "There is no god but God and Muhammad is the prophet of God," are photographed on the sidelines of an anti-U.S. demonstration organized by the Islamic political party Jamaat-e-Islami in Karachi, Pakistan on June 7, 2009. (REUTERS/Athar Hussain)
A Pakistani girl is held by her mother as Doctor Adnan Khan listens to her chest at a medical tent June 2, 2009 at Jalozai camp, Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
Sameulllah Sahavzda, 13, recovers from injuries at a hospital in Peshawar, in northwest Pakistan, Saturday, May 16, 2009. The boy was injured by an air attack which hit his home in the Swat Valley. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
A displaced girl collects water from a water truck in Shah Mansour refugee camp, in northwest Pakistan,Tuesday, June 9, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A girl stands next to her tent as wind and rain pass through the tent city at Jalozai camp on June 2, 2009, 15km from Peshawar, Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
Displaced Pakistani boys and girls memorize the Quran, the Islamic holy book, in a madrassa in Shah Mansour refugee camp, in northwest Pakistan, Tuesday, June 9, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A displaced boy from Swat valley sleeps under a mosquito net outside his tent at the Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pakistani children wait for hours in line for dinner at the Yar Hussain camp June 1, 2009 in Swabi, Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
An internally displaced boy fleeing a military offensive in the Swat valley cools himself with water at an UNHCR camp in Mardan, Pakistan on May 23 2009. (REUTERS/Ali Imam)
1 Comment
June 11, 2009 at 2:49 pm
All of the photos are very touching. I have friends not too awfully far from Lahore just over the border in India.