Gul Zameena and her family left their house in Buner two weeks ago and arrived in Mardan with no possessions, no money and nowhere to stay. Thirty members of her extended family are now sharing one room in the Rustam Civil Hospital where they have little access to food or clean water.
Islamic Relief has established a health team at the Rustam Civil Hospital where it is providing free healthcare for displaced people and the local community. We are also rehabilitating the hospital and are providing it with new equipment. An ambulance service is based at the hospital which can take serious cases from the local community to the hospital for treatment.
Last to leave
“We left our home because there was shelling and firing in our village,” said Gul Zameena. “There was fighting all around and we often had to hide under our beds. But we didn’t want to leave our house and waited until it was impossible to stay any longer so that we could harvest our crops.”
“We are a very poor family and had no transport to take us to Mardan. We just brought a few possessions that we could carry and walked until we found a truck to bring us here.”
“My son stayed behind in the village to take care of the house and the land. He says that the fighting is still going on and so we cannot return home, even though we really want to,” she said. “But I don’t even know how we will get back because we have no money for transportation.”
“My brother-in-law was injured by a shell, he survived but was severely traumatised and left the village to go to Karachi.”
Four families in one room
“We do not have any friends or family here and when we got to Rustam we had nowhere to stay,” said Gul Zameena. “The men in our family went off to try and find somewhere to stay and eventually they came across a person from our area who had moved here before us. He told them that we could stay in the hospital.”
“There are four families living in this one room. Back home each family had one large room to live in, but now there are four families in one small room. Because it is so crowded the men sleep outside.”
“We have just one bed and just the few possessions we could carry with us. We use this room for sleeping, cooking and washing. It is very hot in this room and the children are not comfortable,” she said.
‘No money in our pockets’
“We have been given a little bit of food and we have borrowed some money from our friends to buy some more from market, but we do not have enough food to feed all of us. Other people sold their animals before they left their villages but we did not have any to sell so we came here with no money in our pockets.”
“The children are always complaining they are hungry. They are getting thin and are withdrawn and listless,” Gul Zameena said. “What makes it so hard is that we had a wonderful life back home with wonderful food. But now we have very little, and what we do have is making us ill.”
Free healthcare
“I am worried about the children. Many of them have eye infections and fevers because there is not enough water to wash properly. We only have one latrine between 40 people which the women are finding very hard. But we are now receiving free health care at the hospital, which I hope will ease their suffering.”
“The children are all fighting with each other because this room is so small and there is no space for each person,” said Gul Zameena. “The children were very scared by the conflict and most nights they wake up screaming because they are having nightmares.”
She said, “None of the children are going to school but they really need to continue their education. They have nowhere to play here and I think this is why they are so violent.”
Caught in the middle
“We are scared that if we return home there will be more fighting and we will be caught in the middle,” Gul Zameena said. “But we are not angry because we believe this is our fate as written by God and that he will give us strength to face such difficult circumstances.”