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ActionAid medical clinic in Pakistan running out of funds
Source: ActionAid
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The clinics, which cost around £500 a day to run, have so far provided specialist medical care to 4,000 people living with host families, but may have to close by the end of the month unless more money can be found.
More than 2.5 million people have left their homes after fighting between the Pakistan army and Taliban militants. They are either living in camps or with host families and are in urgent need of food, healthcare and medicines.
The doctors, nurses and midwife from the Shifa College of Medicines and Nursing in Islamabad have volunteered their services for the ActionAid clinics, so the main cost is supplying medicines.
“ActionAid is currently funding the clinics and other emergency relief work from the Pakistan country budget, however we need more funds to continue carrying out this vital work and also to help people once they are able to return home,” said Fikre Zewdie, ActionAid’s Country Director in Pakistan.
Last week ActionAid was one of nine major international aid agencies which warned that their effort to reach over a million victims of the fighting in Swat valley of Pakistan was under threat due to a lack of funds. The agencies face a shortfall in excess of £26m ($42m).
If the clinics close people like Raheela Bibi, 21, will go untreated. “I had a miscarriage on my way from Dir to Swabi while being displaced,” she said. “I almost fainted with loss of blood and weakness. It was so painful that I could hardly breathe. At a host family, I remained bed ridden for a week without medication. Knowing about this medical camp, I came here with pain and cramps. The facility is a blessing for me as a female nurse examined and a doctor attended me. They gave me medicines and advice. I am now confident that I will get better soon.”
ActionAid is also providing food, emergency relief items, and school books and equipment to thousands of displaced people and has hired teachers to get children back to school.
- Find out more about the ActionAid Pakistan appeal
- For more information or to arrange interviews in the field contact Anjali Kwatra on 020 7561 7633, mobile 07941 371357.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
