Shelter welcomes Pakistani refugee women and children

Renovation work of the building that is to provide shelter and other basic services to refugees fleeing the ongoing conflict in the Swat Valley is now completed. It is a Girls' Secondary School in Hayatabad, Peshawar, presently closed for the summer.

The Government of the North-West Frontier Province requested SOS Children's Villages Pakistan help in organising a shelter for women and children, entirely funded by the government. The completed building in Peshawar will be able to shelter up to 100 women and children fleeing the armed conflict in the Swat Valley and will provide the refugees with food, clothing, medical supplies and other basic services.

So far, the shelter has welcomed a widow with five children, their father was killed in the fighting. Search and Rescue teams are on the lookout for more people in need of support. So far, there are not many, but it is widely expected that there will be many more to come.

The recent violence that has gripped Northwest Pakistan and the subsequent military action has displaced over a million civilians and thousands more are expected to become refugees. Nearly 100,000 homes have been reduced to rubble. Whole families have been left with no option but to flee their war-torn communities. The majority of the victims of this ongoing violence are children whose prospects for the immediate future are far from bright.

A myriad of problems including rising temperatures, lack of clean water, lack of proper sanitation and insufficient healthcare are making living conditions increasingly challenging and making the people extremely susceptible to disease and other risks. So far, almost 2.2 million people have been displaced as a consequence of the recent upheaval in the country.