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Children especially
need psychosocial supportIslamabad - The conflict in northwestern Pakistan has not only forced more than 3 million people from their
homes, but left as many as 70 percent of them seriously traumatised, the international humanitarian organisation CARE International said in advance of World Refugee Day on 20 June.
Doctors
treating internally displaced persons (IDPs) say many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). "These are people who have lost their homes and experienced horrific
violence," says Hasan Mazumdar, country director of CARE International in Pakistan. "They urgently need counseling and emotional care."
The government and humanitarian agencies
are working under difficult conditions to meet the basic needs of IDPs, who face the threat of illnesses such as diarrhea and other water-borne diseases. But physical ailments are only part of
the problem, said Dr. Jawad Ali of Islamic Relief, one of CARE's local partners in Mardan district.
"We have been examining about 200 patients per day," said Ali. "Of
them 70 percent, mostly women and children, suffer from mental problems caused by the shelling and destruction they have seen back home."
Mazumdar said many of the survivors will carry
lifelong wounds from their experiences. IDPs avoid speaking about what they have witnessed. "One seven-year-old boy was unable to speak for three weeks," he said. "Another boy, age
five, cries whenever a plane or helicopter flies overhead. He's afraid he'll be killed, like his older brother."
CARE is seeking funds that will enable mobile clinic
workers to provide basic health care and psychosocial support to 11,000 children and women, Mazumdar said.
"If these children don't get help coping with their emotional trauma, they
risk suffering lifelong psychological illness," Mazumdar said. "Homes can be rebuilt, but young hearts may never mend."
About CARE International: CARE is
one of the world's largest aid agencies, working in 70 countries to fight poverty and helping more than 65 million people every year. Our long-term programmes tackle the deep-seated causes of
poverty and we are always among the first to respond when disaster strikes. We remain with communities to help them rebuild their lives long after the cameras have gone. For more information, visit
www.careinternational.org.uk
Contact: Rick Perera (Islamabad) +92 51 285 5923 x140, +92 (0)307 507 7736 (mobile), rperera@care.org
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
A soldier walks past a line of vehicles with internally displaced persons, who fled a military offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley region a few months earlier, as they ...
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