UNICEF: In Pakistan, host families provide for displaced

TAKHTBAI, Pakistan, 8 July 2009 Aeroplanes would come and drop bombs, recalls Ajmal, 8. There were mortar shells hitting our house. We children would cry. On the way it was very difficult and we could not walk especially the little children, and we had to carry them on our backs."

Host communities have borne most of the burden of caring for displaced families. Only around 10 per cent of the displaced live in camps where they can be easily reached with humanitarian relief. Some 150,000 live in 4,000 school buildings converted into shelters by the government, and the rest are living 'invisibly' within communities.

Like Ajmal and his family, many of the displaced are struggling to get by in cramped, often unsanitary conditions with poor amenities, dependant on the hospitality of their hosts for food, clothing and other basic needs.

"Though fighting is subsiding, people are still streaming down to the plains in search of sanctuary, says UNICEF's Programme Communication Officer Shandana Aurangzeb. The vast majority are hidden away in people's houses, making it exceptionally difficult for the humanitarian community to reach them with food, clean water, basic hygiene items and medical services.

"The looming arrival of the annual monsoon promises even greater hardship and the prospect of even more disease if these people are not reached, she adds. Host communities are at equal risk.

To read the full story, visit http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/pakistan_50189.html

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