Written by M. Ashfaq Yusufzai
JALLOZAI, Pakistan (May 14, 2009) - Musafir Khan, who is around 80 years old, has worries written all over his face. He is not sure how to express his feelings over the birth of his granddaughter last Thursday. Under normal circumstances he would be happy. But not this time. His granddaughter was born at the health center – in a newly set up camp for internally displaced persons.
"How could I be happy? Look at our condition. My son is missing and we have no hope of returning back to our home in the Swat valley," Musafir Khan says. The family had not named the baby. Musafir said that they will name her once they return to the tent that is their home now. A doctor at the center run by People's Primary Healthcare Initiative (PPHI), a government run program, said that it was a normal birth attended by a female doctor and a female health attendent.
Musafir Khan said that his son Abdul Mateen, the father of the newborn baby, went missing 20 days ago. His wife and his six children are without a father now.
"Five days ago, when the curfew was relaxed, ... my family left for Peshawar. Now we have taken shelter at the Jallozai camp," he explains. "We left our residence in hurry as we were terrified by the continuous bombing. We left only with the clothes we were wearing and took no other valuables. We have nothing." A health attendant gave the family a sheet of cloth to wrap the newborn baby in. The mother of the child did not even have a spare dress, the health attendent says.
Almost all the visitors to the health center have similar tales of miseries and agonies. Another father, Sher Bahadur, was looking after his daughter who was suffering from gastroenteritis. The girl, 10, was lying on a stretcher and the doctor was injecting her with fluids and medicines. "I am a skilled worker and used to polish gold ornaments in Mingora. When I left my area, Faizabad, I had only 400 Rupees," Mr. Bahadur says, adding that he fled with 12 family members including his older parents. All of them had to walk for several hours to reach the camp.
"We have mostly been receiving patients with gastroenteritis, skin and respiratory track diseases," explains Ashfaq Ahmad, an executive officer of PPHI. He says that they had set up the center on Wednesday. "We are in need of ambulances here for transportation of serious patients."
The sprawling Jallozai Camp, situated 10 kilometers off the road from Pabbi Station in Nowshera, was set up last year after the conflict started in the area of Bajaur and Mohmand. It already has been housing 7,787 families with 47,738 individuals. Last Thursday, May 14, about 2,350 newly arrived families from Malakand region or 16,000 individuals, registered at the camp. Most of them are missing relatives and friends. They are waiting long hours to get food and relief items. It is a heartbreaking start for a new life such as Musafir Khan's granddaughter.
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