This blog is written by Zahoor Ahmed who works for Saibaan Development Organization, a local NGO working in the areas affected by the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan's North West Frontier. Saibaan is one of CARE International's partner organizations in Mansehra District, and is providing relief to those displaced by the fighting in Swat and Buner.

It was a heart-breaking experience to witness the extremely miserable conditions faced by people displaced by fighting in Swat trying to seek shelter at Mansehra. It seemed like an action replay of the 2005 earthquake and the crumbled faces of these people had uncountable stories of misery, sorrow and grief.

The staff of Saibaan, the organization I work for and one of CARE's partner organizations in Pakistan, were shocked to hear a small girl speak about the situation that forced her family to leave their homes. "They have guns, they fire, they kill. Houses have been turned into debris. I saw the dead bodies of soldiers lying on the ground," she told me, answering even before her father had the chance to reply. She told me this in a trembling, shrill voice and I could easily feel the mental stress she was undergoing.

We found 36 members of four families staying in a single room in Mansehra. Jamshaid, the head of one family knew someone inhabiting a house. This man gave a single room to these four families.

Jamshaid 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 and they left everything behind: "We have nothing to eat, no clothes to wear, we don't know what would become of us."

A father of nine children, Jamshaid could only take three of his children with him when he fled. He does not know what happened to the others. When I asked where they are 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."

Jamshaid is not alone in his sorrow. Sultan Hameed, a 59 year old villager from Maidaan in lower Dir, says his hopes of seeing his son and granddaughter are getting dimmer and dimmer every day.

"I fled from the house with my wife, daughter-in-law and children when my elder son was out of home, along with my little grand-daughter. Since then we have no news about them," he said. He and Jamshaid are just two of those displaced by fighting in Pakistan who eagerly wait for help and support from national and international humanitarian agencies.

CARE International, together with local partner organizations has distributed emergency items to 500 families (3500 persons). They have received 1000 plastic floor mats, 1000 mosquito nets, 1500 female and 1500 male shawl, 500 hygiene kits and 500 kitchen sets.

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