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Pakistan: ICRC and Red Crescent help people displaced by violence in North-West Frontier Province
20-10-2009 Photo gallery
As thousands flee fighting in the south of Waziristan, the ICRC and the Pakistan Red Crescent continue to help people displaced in the north of the country over the last six months. A large percentage have been able to go home, but violence is continuing, and is still forcing many to remain in camps in North-West Frontier Province.
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As thousands flee fighting in the south of Waziristan, the ICRC continues to help people displaced in the north of the country over the last six months. Since July, a large percentage of those who were displaced have been able to go home – although life is still difficult – and several camps have closed. But violence is continuing, and is still forcing many to remain in camps at various locations in North-West Frontier Province. The ICRC and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society are distributing food, drinking water and other emergency aid to people in the camps. At the same time, the two organizations are ensuring that displaced people can maintain as normal a daily life as possible. Our photos show examples from the districts of Dir and Buner.
Khungi Sha Camp (Dir). A little girl who was displaced along with her family.
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Khungi Sha Camp in the district of Dir was set up in August 2009 by the ICRC and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society to accommodate displaced people in the Maidan region. Initially, they had been staying in schools. At the beginning of October, the families returned home, and the camp took in a second wave of displaced people, this time from Bajaur Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
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Girls collect water from a water point in Khungi Sha Camp (Dir). The ICRC has set up a drinking water system, latrines and showers, and families can prepare their own meals in communal kitchens.
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After several weeks living in a school, this man and his grandchildren have just arrived in Khungi Sha Camp (Dir). The tent was supplied by the ICRC and erected with the help of Red Crescent volunteers. On the right of the picture lie the few possessions they could take with them when fighting forced them to abandon the family home.
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An ICRC team from Peshawar explains the ICRC’s activities and way of working to the men of Wari 1 Camp (Dir). It is essential that displaced people understand the ICRC if they are to accept its staff and its aid.
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A banner at the entrance to Gandigar Camp (Dir) sums up the activities of the ICRC and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, and how the two organizations operate. The ICRC and the Pakistan Red Crescent have been distributing emergency aid to displaced people, and ICRC teams have set up a drinking water system and latrines. At the height of the crisis, Gandigar Camp was home to some 3,000 people, and approximately 20 families are still living there.
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Displaced people try to lead as normal a life as possible under the circumstances. An open-air school has been set up In Gandigar Camp. In the foreground, a group of boys is learning English. In the background, younger children await their turn.
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It is not always easy to maintain a degree of privacy in these camps. Families mark out their space with whatever comes to hand. Gandigar is situated on a hillside, making privacy easier to achieve than in other camps. But for the children, new faces are a good time to pop up out of hiding.
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Living conditions and hygiene are very basic in some camps, such as this one in the playground of a school in the region of Timergara (Dir). The ICRC has distributed buckets, soap and washing powder, while Red Crescent volunteers give the families advice on hygiene. The ICRC has also provided medicines for Red Crescent health centres in the camps.
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Food and other essential supplies set out ready for distribution by the Red Crescent to over 1,100 displaced families – almost 10,000 individuals – in August 2009. The authorities set up Sawari Camp to deal with the influx of civilians fleeing military operations in the north-east of Buner district. The camp closed in September, after the last of the displaced people returned to their villages.
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At the end of August 2009, for the first time since the crisis began, an ICRC team was able to enter the Chagharzai region (Buner district), which had been particularly affected by the fighting. At a meeting in a school, an ICRC worker explains to community representatives what the organization is all about and how it tries to help those in need. The participants went on to discuss the best way of relaunching farming in the region with the help of the ICRC.
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