Desperate Pakistanis Flee Fighting in Swat Valley
By Liz O'Neill
Catholic Relief Services is responding to the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in northwest Pakistan, where hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes to escape fighting between the army and Taliban. Since May 2, more than 800,000 people have been uprooted because of the fighting, adding to the nearly 500,000 people already living in camps and host communities.
"It's a horrible situation," says Bina Baber, a CRS project officer who visited tent camps and host communities in the Swabi and Mardan districts. "I talked to people who just ran out of the house with nothing more than a blanket. Some piled onto trucks to get out of the region; others walked with young children for miles to get to the safety of camps and temporary shelters. They're traumatized. One mother told me she had to leave a handicapped child behind in order to save other family members. Another woman had to leave her father-in-law behind for the same reason."
Residents flee from Pakistan's Lower Dir district with young children and only a few possessions to escape the fighting between the government army and Taliban. The number of people flooding into camps is expected to top 1 million. Photo by Reuters/Inam Khan, courtesy www.alertnet.org
Working with a local partner, CRS will supply relief packages including cooking utensils, sheets, mosquito nets and hygiene items to more than 1,000 households living in tents or with friends and relatives. Vouchers will also be distributed, allowing people the flexibility to purchase the items they need directly from vendors.
"We learned from our emergency response to the Pakistan earthquake of 2005 that vouchers are a very effective way of meeting people's needs," says Darren Hercyk, CRS country representative for Pakistan. "We go into communities and work with local merchants to identify emergency items that people have told us they need. Then, we help organize market days where people use the vouchers we've provided to make their purchases."
CRS is uniquely positioned to respond to the crisis in Pakistan. "We still have a large number of staff hired four years ago to respond to the earthquake in northern Pakistan," said Hercyk. "Since that time, these same staff responded to a cyclone in 2007 and an earthquake in 2008. We have the staff in place to assess the needs of displaced people, mobilize communities, procure materials and handle all the logistics of distributing relief supplies."
After the initial phase of the response, CRS will move into assisting with water, sanitation and shelter. "We also have a full complement of engineers ready to work with communities," said Hercyk.
Liz O'Neill is CRS' communications officer for Europe, the Middle East and Asia. She is based at the agency's headquarters in Baltimore.
