“In a few hours, the happiest day of my life became the saddest. Everything changed. Our lives changed forever,” says 35-year-old Aliya Tufail narrating how she lost her husband in a bomb blast.

Many women became widows and many children lost fathers on Dec 21, 2007 when a bomber blew himself up during Eid prayers in a mosque of Sherpao village.

The then interior minister, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, was the target of the blast but he escaped unhurt.

The explosion left 57 people dead and around 100 injured.

Tufail, Aliya’s husband, was among the dead.

Aliya Tufail
Aliya Tufail

Usually, the families of security and government officials, who died in terrorist attacks, get a decent compensation but those of smalltime traders and labourers don’t get much support after they lose sole breadwinners.

The one-time compensation, which is meagre, hardly reaches widows and their children.

“The government had provided Rs100,000 compensation but the male members of the family took it and spent it on funeral and related events. I couldn’t ask them to give me the money so that I used it to feed my children,” said Aliya while giving details of her and her family’s misery after her husband, a shopkeeper, was killed in the blast.

According to her, there’s no one to provide for her and her three children.

Aliya with little education and having sewing skills tried to reach minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao to get some job so that she could provide for her kids, but to no avail.

She called those times as the worst of her life as her husband’s family and other relatives had almost forsaken them.

“I heard about the USAID project for the people wanting to begin some business. I applied and got material to begin my tailoring and embroidery business. I earn enough to feed and educate my children,” she said.

Aliya is not the only one whose life returned to somewhat normal and her livelihood revived due to the ‘Conflict Victim Support Programme.’ There are others, who have lost hope and thought they would never stand on their own feet again after being hit by a bomb blast.

“I was hopeless and didn’t have any options to provide for my family,” said Rahim Mohammad while declaring those times as the worst in his life.

In his 40s, Rahim was hit by a mortar shell on June 3, 2009 when he was returning home from the mosque in Mingora of conflict-hit Swat.

He lost the left leg, so he’s unable to provide for 13 dependents of the family, including his own six children, his diseased brother’s four children and his widowed sister’s three children.

“These were the worst times of my life. I was not able to provide for the kids,” said Rahim for whom the last couple of years were not less than a hell as he became a dependant himself.

In February 2014, the hope was revived when the team working for Conflict Victim Support Programme reached out to him. They helped him financially and also helped him get an artificial limb.

Rahim now runs a small general store at Mingora’s busy market and earns Rs600-Rs700 per day ($6-$7 per day). He feels happy as he is back on his own feet.

Rahim is not the only one, Hadayat Ali, who accidentally stepped on a mine on his way to home from a busy market in Parachinar in Kurram Agency on April 10, 2013, lost his leg too.

“I thought I will spend the rest of my life as a disabled helpless person. I was in deep despair,” said Ali while speaking about how traumatised he was after the incident which not only took away his leg but also his hopes.

“But now, I am back on my feet and a proud provider for my family,” said Ali, who also runs a general store and has a steady monthly income.

Scores of men, women and children maimed by terrorist attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas suffered in silence before a USAID-funded programme was launched in 2010 to restore their lives. The programme is implemented by the International Relief and Development Organisation.

The CVSP is a $25 million programme that works with the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata to provide relief and assistance to civilian victims of the conflict here.

The conflict victims not only get medical assistance, they also are provided with small business grants and vocational trainings to earn their livelihood.

The orphans and conflict-affected children are also helped with educational scholarships to get quality education. Some 2700 children have availed the scholarships so far.

Naveed Yousafzai, working with the CVSP, said conflict not only maimed or killed a man but it had financial impact on an entire family too when the bread-earner or a male members of the family was lost in a bomb blast.

“When a family is hit by such a trauma, it wants to get back on its own feet by acquiring a skill or starting a business,” he said when asked what the major demand is when their team contacts a family victimised by an act of terrorism.

“It is encouraging to see that often widows want to get some vocational training and youth want to avail scholarships,” said Yousafzai, who added that trauma might have taken away the livelihood of a family but such people had their self-respect intact and didn’t want to be a burden on the society.

It was a sad fact that in Kurram Agency, Peshawar and Charsadda the number of widows was high compared to other areas. The women, who lost their husbands and are uneducated, want help with the vocational training.

Noorzada, in her 40s, lost her husband on November 27, 2010 in a bomb blast in Kohat. She had to support a family of ten members. She got vocational training under the CVSP in embroidery and tailoring as well as educational assistance for her two daughters.

“Our gratitude is inexplicable,” said Noorzada.

Women like Noorzada are not only an inspiration for their own families, others who have also gone through such trauma also gain confidence to come forward ad rebuild their lives. Usually they start to do so but first they need to share their grief and come out of mourning.

The lives which were destroyed during the conflict in different part of the tribal areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are being reconstructed and revived under this initiative with psycho-social therapy too.

“When a family is hit by trauma, they have to express their grief and share their feelings. We help them by providing them psycho-social counseling,” said Dr Attiqur Rehman, who leads the psycho-social support component of the CVSP.

He said traumatised persons complained of hopelessness and showed grief initially but the organisation supported them until they felt relieved and regained hope.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2014

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