UNICEF: Displaced families returning home in Pakistan

NEW YORK, 17 July 2009 As UNICEF turns its attention to ensuring that children affected by the conflict in Pakistans North-West Frontier Province get back to school on time, the first of some 2 million displaced people have started to return home.

UNICEF is working with its UN partners and Pakistans Government to ensure that the return is safe and voluntary.

One of UNICEFs most pressing priorities is to ensure that about 700,000 school-aged children out of the estimated 1 million children displaced by the conflict are able to return to classes when the school year begins in September.

But many buildings in the Swat Valley area, where the worst fighting took place, have been destroyed, and some 4,000 schools have been turned into shelters for the displaced.

To read the full story, visit http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/pakistan_50274.html

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