Work Continues to Meet Displaced Pakistanis' Immediate Needs

As millions of Pakistanis flee the Swat Valley, a hotspot of combat between the Taliban and Pakistani military, they’re discovering that they’ve rushed into another crisis: uncomfortable, sometimes unsanitary camps overwhelmed by the influx of evacuees.

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Relief for Pakistan’s Displaced Civilians
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Despite the hardships, they know going back to their once-beautiful land is not an option right now.

“I miss my home where Taliban are living now,” said Zartaja Bibi, a woman trembling in a camp in Takht Bhai. But the Taliban warned her that she could either leave or have her throat cut.

ActionAid, long familiar with problems in the country, was on the ground early and saw an urgent need for food, water, shelter, sanitation and health care. And, as workers visit camps, they see the need for aid growing.

Since May 2, escalated fighting in Swat and other embattled areas has forced an estimated 2.4 million people to relocate. Although most of those leaving the Swat Valley are now living with friends or family, in the dwindling number of apartments available for rent or in makeshift settlements of their own, those forced into the camps face stifling heat and scarce supplies. Massive international aid is needed to prevent a disaster in the camps, according to the U.N. high commissioner for refugees.

Nearly three-quarters of those leaving the Swat Valley and surrounding districts are children who face particularly dangerous hardships, in terms of both the journey, and when they arrive and settle in camps or private homes.

“Families have been separated as some members took to the road while their relatives remained at home, either unwillingly trapped due to fighting and curfew, or intentionally staying back to look after houses and livestock,” said Javeria Ayaz Malik, communications coordinator for ActionAid Pakistan.

The journey is long and hard. Transport is scarce and children are walking more than 100 kilometers. Many become separated from their families or lost.

Takht Bhai, the first area on the way out of Swat, houses hundreds of thousands people who’ve fled the war-torn valley or the similarly embattled district of Buner.

With ice a rare luxury and temperatures surpassing 100 degrees, one man there said he couldn’t bear to drink hot water; he fainted from dehydration. People say the food is tasteless, with nothing but cooked lentil gravy for flavoring.

Meanwhile, women and small children cram themselves into tents with hand fans, stepping outside only to use the toilet. Purdah — the Muslim veil tradition of secluding women from men — prevents women from leaving the privacy of the tents, and a lack of hygiene products feeds sanitation problems.

Diseases such as acute respiratory infections, acute diarrhea and lower respiratory infection have struck many and are spreading, according to the World Health Organization. In Takht Bhai, ActionAid met a 2-year-old boy covered in mosquito bites and a malaria patient whose family said they were plagued by mosquitoes but had no repellents or nets.


Men stand in the scorching heat and blazing sun waiting to get bags of wheat at a food distribution point.
Copyright © ActionAid

If conditions in the camps worsen, many fear that their angry and desperate residents will turn to the Taliban, the only organization to provide them with basic materials and a sense of respect.

So far, most people appear to support the government and its response, but the danger that displaced Pakistanis will turn to militant extremism grows as they are separated from their homes by a conflict with no clear end in sight.

“The fighting could continue for a longer period, so they will not be going home soon,” said Fikre Zewdie, director of ActionAid Pakistan. “Pakistan cannot handle a crisis on this scale without international help.”

ActionAid is on the ground helping to meet Pakistanis’ immediate needs. As of June, we are assisting 4,000 families in Swabi, Mardan and Hasan Abdul, in part by providing food and non-food items, as well as health and hygiene facilities

We are also collaborating with Shifa College of Medicines and Nursing to extended medical care and treatment and medicines to hundreds of people.

Abdul Jabbar, 41, is displaced from Koza Banday in Swat and is living with a relative in Kotha area of Swabi. Abdul came to ActionAid’s medical camp with his three children who were suffering from a viral chest infection.

“When you have no shelter, no money, no proper food and no medicine for your ailing kids, you are no where,” said Abdul. “I am jobless and homeless. I was depressed, as I could not get medicine for my three coughing kids. But with this medical camp in my area, a doctor examined my kids and they got medicine. I hope they will soon be better.”

Please support ActionAid and its critical work in Pakistan to provide supplies to those displaced by the ongoing fighting.