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Humanitarian aid not keeping pace with Pakistan crisis

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CWS: Humanitarian aid not keeping pace with Pakistan crisis

Editors:  Hi-res photos to accompany this story are at
www.churchworldservice.org/hires

NEW YORK, May 21, 2009 - With U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
this week pledging an additional $110 million in humanitarian aid to
Pakistan, international relief and development agency Church World
Service calls for immediate humanitarian attention to health services
for the 1.5 million people displaced by ongoing battles between the
Pakistan military and Taliban insurgents in the country's North West
region.

CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan Country Director Marvin Parvez, in New York
City to raise funds for the response, said that unless immediate needs
for water and sanitation in displacement camps are addressed, those
uprooted will face serious health epidemics - a "second disaster."

In an expansion of its community health center activities CWS's
Mansehra, Pakistan health clinic will make available several mobile
health clinics to serve displaced people and host families in the
region. CWS has operated its health post in Mansehra for the past 30
years, serving vulnerable Pakistani residents and Afghan refugees who
had inhabited the area's camps for years, before being repatriated last
year.

"Aid is needed today," Parvez said, adding, "Humanitarian aid is not
moving as fast as the crisis is moving."  CWS, with staff and offices
throughout Pakistan, was a lead agency for relief and rehabilitation
following the 2005 Pakistan earthquake.

Parvez said those displaced by the fighting face a hot, difficult
summer in camps with worsening conditions, and the possibility of a
protracted crisis that could extend into the winter months. Already, he
added, the displacement of more than 1 million people has turned into
the largest movement of people within Pakistan since the 1947
India-Pakistan partition. CWS has worked in Pakistan for more than 50
years.

The massive displacement also comes to a region with underlying
problems of illiteracy and poverty that Parvez said must be addressed if
long-term security is to take root.

According to Parvez, a central part of providing security is to address
particular problems faced by women, who he said are more vulnerable in
humanitarian crises.

"Many women arriving in camps for the displaced are traumatized. Many
are pregnant. Women who are uprooted from their homes tend to suffer
greater difficulties due to cultural norms," Parvez said.  "In this
region, many of the women are unaccustomed to leaving their homes.  To
find themselves in the camps or in unknown communities is quite
traumatic."

CWS staff responding to the crisis report that although women received
shelter kits, many do not receive food because they are afraid or unsure
about going to the distribution points because that is mainly a manâ?? s
responsibility.

"Much of the female displaced population rarely leaves their houses.
Fleeing from their homes and ending up alone in a camp is terrifying for
them," said Parvez. For this reason, some are too afraid to leave their
tents to seek food for themselves and their children.

Assisting women and children remains a priority for CWS in its Pakistan
response, as does helping provide greater accountability and quality of
service by aid agencies responding to the current crisis--for example,
assuring that meals served in displacement camps contain adequate
calorie levels.

Beyond the immediate relief assistance, CWS has requested designation
as a Humanitarian Accountability Project/Sphere focal point-or
facilitator--for training and support to partner groups engaged in this
crisis response.

CWS shapes its food aid and other disaster responses accord
ing to
international quality and accountability standards set by the Sphere
Project and the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership
(HAP-International).

In its response, Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan is working
with local partners to distribute food packages and shelter kits for
1,000 families. The relief is being distributed to displaced persons,
some in camps and others taking refuge with host families in the
districts of Mardan and Swabi. Shelter kits include tents, groundsheets
and tarpaulins.

Church World Service is responding as part of a coordinated effort by
Action by Churches Together members in Pakistan and has launched a U.S.
fundraising campaign.

> An interview with Parvez is on YouTube at
> www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbWSeIMbCkE

(From Islamabad CWS-Pakistan/Afghanistan communications officer Kelli
Siddiqui contributed to this report.)

HOW TO HELP: Contributions to support CWS relief efforts may be made
online at www.churchworldservice.org/donate, sent to Church World
Service at P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515, or made by phoning
800-297-1516.