Written by Zahoor Ahmed of Saibaan Development Organization, a CARE partner
MANSEHRA DISTRICT, Pakistan (May 17, 2009) - It was a heartbreaking experience to witness the extremely miserable condition of migrants from Swat trying to seek shelter at Mansehra. It seemed the action replay of the 2005 earthquake. The crumbled faces of these people had untold stories of misery, sorrow and grief. If the motionless eyes of the aged ones were filled with agony and sorrow, the disappointment and anger was quite visible in the eyes of young ones. The innocent but worried faces of little children reflected untold stories of fear and apprehension.
Project officers of Saibaan Development Organization, a partner of CARE in Mansehra District, talk to refugees in the camps. (2009 Saibaan Development Organization)
The team of Saibaan, one of CARE's partner organizations, was shocked by a little girl when we asked her family what had forced them to leave their homes. The little girl spoke before her father could reply. She said, in a trembling voice, "They have guns, they fire, they kill. Houses have been turned into debris. I saw the dead bodies of soldiers lying on the ground." I could easily feel the mental stress she was undergoing.
We found 36 members of four families staying in a single room. Jamshaid, the head of one family, told me that women and children sleep in the room. The men sleep outside in the open air. He said that they have no money to buy food. They left everything behind. He added,: "We have nothing to eat, no clothes to wear. We don't know what will become of us." Jamshaid, a father of nine children, could take only three of them with him when he left his hometown. He does not know what happened to the rest of his beloved. He told me with tears in his eyes, "I don't know. I don't know where they are, how they are, whether they are dead or alive. The shelling was so heavy that we ran out of the village, in great panic, only with those who were at home at that moment."
Children in the camps have high levels of trauma. (2009 Saibaan Development Organization)
Jamshaid is not alone in his sorrow. The hopes of Sultan Hameed, a 59-year-old villager of Maidaan in lower Dir, to see his son and granddaughter again are getting dimmer and dimmer with every passing minute. "I fled from the house with my wife, daughter-in-law, children and my little granddaughter when my elder son was out of home. Since then, we have no news about him," he said.
Jamshaid and Hameen are just two migrants who eagerly wait for help and support from national and international humanitarian agencies.
CARE's Response
On Sunday, May 17, 2009, together with partner organizations, CARE distributed essential items to 500 families (3,500 persons). The items included 1,000 plastic floor mats, 1,000 mosquito nets, 1,500 female and 1,500 male shawls, 500 hygiene kits and 500 kitchen sets.
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