NWFP APPEAL

Support Families in NWFP, Pakistan

Source : Reuters
 

The man from Barikot walked six hours to Chakdara in Dir district of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. His mother wife, sister and children walked with him. At Chakdara his mother could not walk anymore and the family was caught in the cross fire. His mother eventually asked them to leave her there because she could not bear it anymore and their staying on could have meant being hit by a mortar shell. The family is now in a camp not knowing what happened to their mother. Unlike death, which one learns to accept, the lovely pristine valley they left behind is like an ugly scar on their memory, making it very difficult to comprehend this madness’.

(A message from Masood ul Mulk, Chief Executive Sarhad Rural Support Programme, Peshawar, Pakistan).

It is difficult for Pakistanis to come to terms with what is happening to their country today. The escalating violence in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has burst into a sea of humanity running away from the northern districts as the battle between the militants and Pakistani forces rages full force. According to the Relief Commissioner’s office 1.2 million people have left their homes and fled to safety. Their families have been rent asunder, separated, they have left their dead under destroyed houses and have fled to save what remains of their lives – themselves. It is time for Pakistanis and for our friends all over the world to help these displaced people – these are not just innocent victims of a battle within Pakistan, they are victims of the World’s War on Terror and we are all responsible for them.

WHAT IS RSPN?

The Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) is a national, Pakistani organisation and the largest non-government network of rural development programmes in the country, called Rural Support Programmes or RSPs. Our oldest Network members is the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme which started work in northern Pakistan (further north of the current conflict zone) in 1983. The RSPs work with 2 million rural households across Pakistan to mobilise rural women and men on a self help basis into village-level organisations. These community organisations undertake activities in areas of relief and rehabilitation, community built infrastructure, community financing (micro credit and health insurance), training in employable skills, agriculture, livestock, small enterprise and other sectors. The RSPs work in 94 of the country’s 125 districts and in 2 tribal areas of Pakistan ie Khurram Agency and FR Peshawar. Due to our social mobilisation efforts communities were able to effectively come together in Pakistan’s 2005 earthquake to undertake relief and rehabilitation operations on a large scale.

RSPN is registered as a non profit company under Pakistan’s Companies’ Ordinance, 1984. It is audited annually by KPMG. RSPN has nine member Rural Support Programme partners, two of which are working with displaced people in the NWFP ie the Sarhad (or NWFP) Rural Support Programme (SRSP) and the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP). Please see RSPN website for further details at http://www.rspn.org/

SRSP with UNHCR has established a Humanitarian Response Centre in Mardan to facilitate all donors, philanthropists, charities etc.  This center has the capacity to support the efforts of  donating individuals and organisations, by providing them with outreach and supplying them with adequate information regarding the emerging needs to be addressed and the locations of IDPs.

Chiarman RSPN Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan's Visit to IDPs Camp in Mardan and Charsadda  >> Read More