IDP Diary - Day 1

Actually its not Day 1, its 30 days now since I began my journey to facilitate the IDPs on behalf of the organization I work and donors who support us...

Anyways, I decided yesterday that I would update everyone by sharing interesting stories from Mardan and Swabi, where most of the displaced people are shifting, and all the places I visit to.

So, without wasting more time, start reading this:

Yesterday, I went to Spilno-Dehray, UC Makori in District Mardan. The place is 1-2 km away from Malakand Agency and around 60-70 kms away from the war zone. The organization I work in, Human Relief Foundation has selected this site to support the IDP families who have shifted there. My job of the day was to take a survey to assess the sanitation, health and water conditions. To my horror, the situation turned out to be more horrific than I had thought of. Most of the people did not have access to toilets and are forced to excrete their wastes in open, they are not used to this ritual as back home they had a toilet system which was well connected with sewage system. Moreover, they used to have seperate bathrooms, now they have to use the toilet for the same purpose. Ladies wait for their turns till it turns dark, to preserve their honor.

Surprisingly, the water condition is not as bad. The quality of the water is acceptable, and the only thing they require is storage tanks.

Well, lets come to the most interesting part, we left the village to head towards the Mardan city and guess what happened?

We got stuck in the area because the army/police put a curfew near the Shergarh Market! (the Shergarh Market, a market has a 600 year history and comes in between Spilno-Dehray and Mardan city)

But, I was lucky as I was with the company of some smart Pushtoons who knew another way. I wish the smart people working to displace people dont find out this place to create more unrest...

For everyone's information, the curfew has become a daily ritual and everyday people get shot down for violating it, some die, some survive...