CAFOD to help displaced Pakistanis

Published Date: May 27, 2009

CAFOD, the United Kingdom partner of Caritas, has pledged £100,000 (US$158,000) to help people displaced by fighting between Pakistani government troops and Taliban militants in the Swat valley.

The money will go to Catholic agencies working in the area and will be used mainly to help some 10,000 refugee families, 70,000 people in all, who are not in camps but are staying with host families. “These people are less well-documented than those in the camps, and the host families are themselves very poor,” Debbie Wainwright, CAFOD´s spokeswoman on Asia, told UCA News.

CAFOD is a UK-based Catholic aid and relief agency, set up in 1962 by the Catholic bishops of England and Wales. It was originally known as the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development, but today is called the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development. It is part of the Caritas International Federation.

Caritas is the Catholic Church´s social service agency.

Taliban militants said on May 24 they would stop fighting in the valley´s main town, Mingora, the scene of heavy fighting recently. However, the Pakistani army said it would continue its drive to clear militants from the town. Helicopter gunships had attacked two Taliban-held villages nearby.

People trapped in the area face a humanitarian catastrophe unless the government lifts a curfew in the region and airlifts food, water and medicine to those trapped, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says that already 2.38 million people have fled.

They have left with little more than the clothes on their backs, said Robert Cruickshank, CAFOD´s Pakistan program manager, according to the CAFOD website. He said the 26 official camps, housing 262,000 refugees, were overcrowded and people, particularly the elderly, were suffering in temperatures as high as 53 degrees Celsius.

He added: “Hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter in schools and mosques or are living with families, creating a huge additional burden for the already poor host families. Our partners will be concentrating much of their efforts on supporting those living with extended family members, although they are spread far and wide in small groups.”

CAFOD´s partners — Caritas Pakistan, the US-based Catholic Relief Services and ICMC, the International Catholic Migration Commission — are already providing clean water, temporary shelter, bedding and cooking utensils as well as trauma counseling to nearly 150,000 people.

Women in particular are traumatized and confused as many have never left their homes before, said Cruickshank.

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