Pakistan is in the midst of an ongoing struggle against tenacious and brutal extremist groups who kill innocent people and terrorize communities. The crises in the northwest frontier region of Pakistan is shaped by decades of history: the political and administrative legacies of colonial governance: the impact of Cold War regional dynamics and the pervasive availability of weapons; radicalization; the post – 9/11 era; the coalescing of disparate groups around extremist ideologies; and the ascendance of the region into a key transit corridor for the multi million dollar drugs and arms trades. Militants in FATA and KP have exploited frustrations at decades of weak governance, perceived corruption and wide ranging socio economic deficits. The armed conflict and the ascendancy of extremist elements particularly in KP/FATA have affected everyone in multiple ways.
Abbas Town Blast Karachi
Thousands of children, women, adults and aged people have suffered serious injuries due to bomb blasts, leaving them with lifelong disabilities. Children and women are more vulnerable due to unawareness and no long term family support in case of dead parents/guardians; due to the absence of resources for extended treatment and rehabilitation.
In order to ensure a coordinated and consolidated response for the rehabilitation and protection of the most vulnerable population, it is critical to devise a systematic and planned line of action that addresses the immediate as well as the medium to long term needs of the children, women and men who are at risk of losing all hopes resulting in large scale human catastrophe due to conflicts in different parts of KP/FATA. Giving cash compensations or one time assistance to victims of any disaster is it man-made such as conflicts or natural disasters is a simplistic view of providing assistance to affectees.
We are taking a more holistic approach in providing relief to the conflict victims, the program has been developed on a three prong strategy
- Providing one time physical and material support.
- Provide assistance to provide them opportunities to become economically sustainable.
- Develop long term strategies to ensure continued livelihood and means to overcome the losses.
Our Conflict Victim Support Program has been designed in a way to address the critical needs of the families who have lost their breadwinner people suffering minor injuries who can be rehabilitated through treatment and support in livelihood development and severely injured who may need support to now find alternate means of earning livelihood as they may no longer be able to earn livelihood from means they were able to prior to becoming a victim of the conflict.
To address these issues the PEI will provide services including, but not limited to, physical and social assistance to civilian victims of conflict, assist them regaining their economic livelihoods through transparent economic recovery programs and working with the government in introducing new and innovative approaches for designing long term solutions for providing transparent and equitable assistance to civilian victims of conflict.
PEI will define how civilian victims will be specifically identified and selected for participation in the designed Program, the types of compensation to be available under and through the designed program, how compensation packages will transparently and equitably be defined and distributed, define a community vetting procedure so as to ensure this program is not providing assistance to known terrorists and their family members, how vulnerable groups, particularly widows and orphans, will be reached and provided for as a part of this program.
PEI has vast experience in distribution of Goods in Kind (GIK) like medicines, medical/surgical supplies, wheelchairs prosthetic and such items to flood/conflict victims in KP/FATA and Baluchistan. We have also provided support to flood and terrorist victims in Swat under the project “Swat Tourism Sector Census and Rehabilitation” and “Swat Fisheries Sector Recovery and Rehabilitation”. We help in designing the grants program to provide in-kind equipment, materials and cash grants to terrorism/flood victims through USAID assistance. We provided on job assistance and trainings focused on assisting victims to restart or start their business ventures. The details of these projects are given under the section of past experience.