|
|
|
| December 4, 2005 | Sunday | Ziqa’ad 1, 1426 |
NGOs admit to uneven distribution of relief
BATAGRAM, Dec 3: Many non-governmental organizations taking part in relief work in the quake-hit areas faced lack of coordination, duplication of work and disproportionate distribution of relief items. “Lack of coordination, communication and haste resulted in many problems during the relief activities,” said Talib Jan, a volunteer from Kohistan.
The Aurat Foundation, Peshawar chapter, held a one-day consultation titled “Lessons learnt and the future challenges” with local relief workers, representatives of NGOs and donor agencies in tehsil Batagram.
The participants said that a majority of NGOs, who were basically not relief organizations, faced lack of coordination with other networking partners and relief items did not reach many places.
“At some places one person had four or five tents while at others entire families had not a single tent, and even went without food. The uneven distribution of relief was witnessed in many far-flung areas,” said Faqir Mohammad Faqir, president of Tanzeem Nawjawanan Batagram and coordinator of district council.
The NGOs, with no experience of disaster management and relief work, should develop a strategy to generalize relief, he said.
Talib Jan said “we should have ensured preparedness as this region falls in the fault line”.
“We need trained volunteers. we have realised that many of us did not know how to deal with and act in the emergency situation,” Mr Jan said.
Problems are still there and NGOs should develop a strategy to take aid supplies to far-flung areas. Roads and tracks are still closed in snow-bound areas and people are stranded in Kohistan district and upper parts of tehsil Allai of Batagram district, another participant said.
Due to lack of coordination among relief workers, many people are still without winterized tents while at other places people have hoarded up tents, perhaps to sell them later on, Mr Umreen of Allai tehsil said.
Many people are still unable to reach health facilities, resulting in delivery complications in two cases, Mr Jan noted.
Aftab Ali, a representative of Shangla development society working in collaboration with Oxfam and Swat Youth Front, said his organization provided relief to some 3000 families but shortage of tents was the main hurdle in relief effort.
Many villages like Nusrat Khel Musa Khel, Ismail Khel near the border with Bunair, were still without tents and were in dire need of health facility, Mr Ali informed.
Ms Jamila, a district councillor from Mansehra, said that Prime Minister Shuakat Aziz had announced Rs20 million for his area, a sum which had either not been released or had not reached those for whom it was meant. The delay in the provision of compensation to survivors was aggravating their miseries, she said.
The NGOs were unable to make a correct assessment of the needs in quake-battered areas. Overall, there was lack of coordination among civil administration, army and NGOs, Kamran Shah of Afghan Women Resource Centre (AWRC) said.
There should be a permanent disaster management unit or an organisation devoted to tackling such situations in this disaster-prone area, another participant noted.
PUBLIC OPINION: The opinion of locals of Batagram, Kohistan and Shangla, conservative districts of NWFP, is changing in favour of NGOs after the Oct 8 disaster.
Those who used to call NGO workers ‘Kaafir’ and opposed those favouring their work “are now themselves running after NGOs for getting relief items,” Mr Ashfaq Khan, a Batagram resident, said.
The minds of people are opening slowly. Just a few months ago there was no concept of NGOs working for women rights coming into Batagram. In the local body elections, women were not allowed to vote and women activists were barred from coming here. Now they are actively and openly taking part in the relief effort, Naseem Khan Tarand, a local said.
|
|
|
|
