While much of the world’s attention has been on quake-devastated Haiti, relief groups remain as busy as ever easing the plight of others suffering elsewhere in the world.
Christian group World Vision warned this week that an increase in the number of displaced people in Pakistan could lead to further deterioration in current conditions. As the frontlines shift towards other troubled parts of Pakistan on the Afghan border, tens of thousands of people are likely to be displaced joining those already taking refuge in poor communities.
“The conflict between government forces and the Taliban militants that triggered the displacement of more than 2.5 million people from Swat, Dir and Buner districts in May and June 2009 may be over, but daily life remains a challenge for the returning population,” World Vision reported.
Since April 2009, the Pakistan government has been fighting Taliban militants hiding out in the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan, displacing an estimated two million people.
Although the Pakistani government announced in July 2009 that it was safe to return to Swat Valley and starting transporting people back to their homes by buses and trucks, fighting between the militants and the government continued.
In addition to causing an unprecedented people movement, the recent conflict also destroyed homes, infrastructure and livelihoods when households had to abandon their fields during harvest, thus losing their produce.
To date, some 356,300 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) have received emergency relief assistance and food provisions from World Vision through the Church World Service (CWS) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
Since the latest conflict between government forces and Taliban militants broke out last year, World Vision has been providing family kits, water purifiers and six-month cash support to particularly vulnerable families and has also been providing psychosocial support for children through two Child Friendly Spaces in Buner.
World Vision is distributing food rations and water purification tablets to 60,000 households in spite of the challenge posed by military restrictions on movement and humanitarian activities by international organisations in the area.
World Vision reported: “Over the coming months most of the IDPs will continue to need humanitarian assistance, specifically shelter, food, water and sanitation and the delivery of basic social services including health and education."
