[Reader-list] The humanitarian crisis of Swat's Internally Displaced People - Omar Foundation

[yasir ~يا سر]

current estimates of people displaced is now at 2,500,000  !


From: Beena Sarwar <bsarwar1 at yahoo.co.uk>


Further to my earlier note on how to help those forced to become refugees in
their own land - the largest internal displacement ever in Pakistan as the
army finally takes action against the Taliban - see appeal below sent by a
journalist friend in Karachi. Rashida Dohad, also an old friend, works with
OAK Foundation - www.oakdf.org.pk
'Donate' link - http://www.oakdf.org.pk/links/donate.htm)
Also see IDP Wiki page at http://sarelief.com


From: sahar <sahar at panossouthasia.org>
Date: Mon, May 18, 2009 at 10:56 PM
Subject: The humanitarian crisis of the Internally Displaced People of Swat
- please support Omar Foundation

Dear Friends and Family,

This evening I attended a briefing by Ali Asghar Khan, Chairman of the Omar
Asghar Khan Development Foundation, at the Sindh Club. Ali had been invited
by Karachi's concerned citizens – concerned about the humanitarian crisis
unfolding rapidly in the wake of the war to crush the Taliban uprising in
Swat – to talk about what was happening, and how Karachi-ites could help.

Omar Foundation's solid credentials as an organization working to create
space for the poor to engage in the democratic process, were established in
the wake of the 2005 earthquake, when alongside their systematic relief
efforts, they organized earthquake survivors to articulate their needs and
express them in the policy arena, in a bid to make earthquake rehabilitation
policy responsive to people's needs and priorities.

While Omar Foundation's base is in Hazara, their experience of organizing
the community – through village committees – to take responsibility of the
task of distribution of relief supplies to people who most needed them –
qualifies them to deliver similar services for the efficient distribution of
relief supplies to the hundreds of thousands of families fleeing Swat to
peaceful parts of NWFP.

This is a humanitarian crisis of immense magnitude, as confirmed by the UN.
And the most alarming aspect, as Ali pointed out earlier this evening, is
that the media is portraying just the tip of the iceberg. "Eight-five (85)
percent of the displaced population is not in the camps," revealed Ali. They
are being hosted in people's homes, as many as 15 to a small room. Schools
are overflowing with between 200 to 1500 people, without adequate – often
non-existent – facilities for housing these families.

Omar Foundation's `adopt-a-school' programme will seek to establish
committees among the people living in schools to undertake the task of
management, establishing services and distribution of relief goods. "All
distribution will be through these committees, that will be made up of the
people themselves," Ali said.

Speaking on the occasion, Ishaq, who fled Swat some months ago after his
name was announced on the Taliban radio channel with a death warrant, and
will be working with Omar Foundation to organize the displaced populations,
said: "Our people are worse-off than farm animals." He added that the
100-year-old infrastructure of Swat had been destroyed. "We were against the
provincial government's deal with the Taliban," he said. But he and others,
who have fled the area with their families in the wake of the army
operation, are now afraid to speak out against the provincial government,
the army, or the Taliban. Ali explained that there is a palpable sense of
insecurity among the people, which he sensed when he recently toured the
schools in Mardan where the IDPs are languishing.

It is this insecurity that needs to be dealt with, after the immediate need
of providing food, healthcare, sanitation, and education facilities to the
IDPs has been addressed. "Our nation may not get this chance again. We have
to be there for them [the IDPs]," said Ali. He added that model systems of
justice, healthcare, education and other basic needs have to be created to
ensure that the vacuum being currently created through the operation, will
be filled and not allow the Taliban to re-group and re-surface. Ali said the
common refrain is, "The Taliban are like water." You flush them from one
area, and they will simply flow to another. It is this feeling of insecurity
that needs to be addressed if peace and the IDPs are to return to Swat.

For now, the need of the hour is to provide immediate relief for the disease
and despair that is spreading rapidly. People need nutritious food, water
for drinking and washing, toilets, bedding, utensils, medicines and medical
services, clothing, sanitary goods, education, and sanitation.

Omar Foundation has taken on the responsibility of organizing these
facilities and services for three schools in one of the poorest Union
Councils in Mardan (where people who are hosting these families are so poor,
that they can barely afford the hospitality now, let alone on a long term
basis).

"Some schools need toilets, others need kitchens, a sewage system, fans,"
explained Ali.

Please support the Omar Foundation's efforts to provide immediate relief and
more sustained basic services to the people of Swat who need our support.
They have sacrificed their homes so that the rest of Pakistan may live
without fear of the Taliban.

Donations can be sent to:

Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation
Current Account # 0030445261000455
MCB Bank (1028)
Super Market, Islamabad
Pakistan
SWIFT Code MUCBPKKAMCC

Tax exemption # 6043/RTO/ATD/2008-09 dated 12 May 2009

Please email details including name, address and amount for acknowledgment
to info at oakdf,org.pk

Tel +92 512611092 – 4
Mob +92 300 8565279

PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS EMAIL WIDELY. THIS ISN'T A MATTER OF DAYS OR WEEKS. IT
COULD TAKE MONTHS, EVEN YEARS. DONATE GENEROUSLY AND CONSISTENTLY.