Facing the humanitarian tragedy -over 2 million civilians were estimated to have fled the conflict between government troops and the Taliban insurgents-, TSF deployed to Pakistan on May 18th to respond to the emergency in the North Western Frontier Province.

Due to very difficult security conditions and in order to build local capacity, TSF partnered with a local NGO called Youth Resources Center (YRC) and trained 20 local employees for its humanitarian calling operations. Therefore, although TSF’s team had been evacuated on June 10th after the terrorist attack on the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, the calling operations went on through YRC.

 

The mission ended on August 4th.

 

First Phase of Operations

 

The 20 team members were divided in 6 teams and equipped with mobile phones provided by TSF (5 teams comprised of male members and 1 team of female members) to cover the camps and humanitarian hubs. A number of "humanitarian hubs" were set up to provide help to people who were staying outside of the camps, and who settled with family, friends or host communities.

The male team members were primarily assigned to humanitarian hubs. In Jalala camp, the female team provided phoning services to women. In the camps and the humanitarian hubs, national and international calls were offered. In the camps, IDPs only had access to local calls.

TSF offered, from June 8th to the 15th, 1570 calls to the displaced population in the Mardan district. This service gave victims a link with the outside world, helping them reunite their families, reassure loved ones that they are alive and safe after an emergency, and ask for personalized assistance.

 

Second Phase of Operations

 

During the month of July 2009, the context in the country changed, the situation remaining very difficult for the IDPs. The government of Pakistan officially started an organized voluntary returns process for the IDPs in the towns and villages liberated by the army. But government troops were running new military operations against Taliban insurgents in neighboring regions, leading to new civilians’ influx in the camps.

Since the end of the first phase of activity, TSF had been organizing, in collaboration with YRC, the calling operations’ resumption, our head of mission returning to Islamabad to coordinate and monitor the mission on the ground.

For this second phase, we decided to cover districts other than Mardan, where many IDPs were sheltered. The objective was to cover as many districts as possible. As of August 2009, there were in the six districts of the region 25 refugee camps, 10 registration centers and 34 humanitarian hubs, which distributed food to IDPs. Ten more distribution points were inside the camps.

 

Six teams (4 teams comprised of male members and 2 teams of female members) covered different camps in Nowshera, Swabi and Mardan districts:

- Chota Lahore and Shah Mansoor Camp-I & II in Swabi, where the activities began,
- Jalozai-I and Jalozai-II in Nowshera,
- Jalala, Mardan, Shankar College and Tarakai Camp in Mardan district.
Jalozai-2 was the biggest camp where more than 57,000 people were sheltered.

From July 28th to August 4th, the 6 teams were able to provide 1658 calls to the displaced civilians. This was again the opportunity for displaced populations to alert their family members of their condition and needs, especially to seek medical and financial help as well as to receive mental relief.

It was the first time that TSF ran civilian calling operations only with mobile phones.

We believe that our action was all the more necessary since TSF is the only organization offering free international calls. Many Pakistanis have relatives abroad in the Middle East, in the UK or in other countries of Asia.

In addition, TSF has provided satellite-based mobile tools to the local NGO Philantrope since the month of June 2009. The NGO is working in rural areas of the Malakand district, which are not covered by GSM.

 

Hadia is a mother of six children and comes from Cabal, a village in District Swat. Six months ago, she got injured with her husband in a military bombardment. Once recovered, they fled the village. But three of their children were stuck in Cabal. Sheltered in one of the humanitarian hubs, TSF enabled her to make a call to her children. While she talked with them, a smile was lighting up her face.

Naheed is living in the village called Tahirabad and she is the mother of a new born 3-days old baby. To reach Jalala camp, 15 kms far from her village, she had to walk, pregnant, more than 13 hours. Her feet were swollen and legs were aching. Thanks to the phoning services we implemented, she was able to call her husband who is working in Karachi. She was happy to hear he was safe and sound and could reassure him on their situation.

Rajmeena fled Mingora town. It took her 10 hours to reach Jalala camp along with her 9 children. Her brother, living in Dubai, was left without any news since the beginning of the conflict. This priority call enabled Rajmeena to reassure her brother and tell him the situation. It was also for her the opportunity to ask for financial assistance so that they can move to some safer place. Her brother promised her that he will find this safe shelter very soon.