PESHAWAR, Dec 16: Children in the welfare home located in Hayatabad have been living in unhygienic condition with their health put at risk. Some 50 children are lodged in the orphanage run by the district social welfare department in the Special Education Complex.

A child named Aadil was found suffering from skin disease. He had not received any treatment and was left uncared for, as there is no in-house nurse or doctor to attend to lodgers’ health needs.

Others wore dirty clothes and their faces were unwashed, a sign of neglect and lack of schooling in hygiene.

Medicines donated by philanthropists from time to time mostly remain under-utilised and expire in the closets, a visit to the orphanage store revealed.

The home is faced with shortage of staff. With no sweeper on duty, the rooms and toilets present a scene of total mess.

The board of governors consisting of civil society members appears least interested in the home’s affairs. It gives salary to two teachers who impart education to 50 children up to primary level. And that’s all.

The sweeper of the neighbouring institute for the blind sometimes comes and cleans the orphanage. But this happens only seldom.

Ms Nudrat, in-charge of the home, said the post of sweeper was not sanctioned. The orphanage had 12 rooms and 10 toilets and it was difficult to keep them clean in the absence of a sweeper, she said.

“The gutter is chocked for two months and its stinking odour often becomes unbearable. The authorities had been informed about this but to no avail,” she said when reached on phone.

The district social welfare department has provided only one teacher who also stays at the orphanage to act as a warden.

“The district social welfare department running the orphanage has deprived it of staff and facilities it used to have before,” Ms Shumaila, a district councillor and BOG member, said. The transport facility, computers and telephone are no more.

The department has also transferred two of the home’s teachers, she lamented.

The vehicle which was used for emergency purposes “is now under personal use of a social government officer”, Ms Shumaila said.

“The home was started in a building some years ago on ad hoc basis without posts being sanctioned,” Mr Jahanzeb, district coordination officer of Peshawar district, said.

The home was opened in a rented building which belongs to the federal government. For over three years, a tussle has been going on between the federal and provincial governments over its possession.

The federal government wanted to take over the building and start another project but the orphanage did not want to hand it back when no other building was available.

The children have been suffering from neglect, with neither the federal nor provincial government coming forward to set things right.