Children especially need psychosocial support

ISLAMABAD (June 17) – The conflict in northwestern Pakistan has not only forced more than 3 million people from their homes, but left as many as 70 percent of them seriously traumatized, the international humanitarian organization CARE said in advance of World Refugee Day, June 20.

Doctors treating internally displaced persons (IDPs) say many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  “These are people who have lost everything,” says Hasan Mazumdar, country director of CARE International in Pakistan. “They urgently need counseling and emotional care.”

The government and humanitarian agencies are working under difficult conditions to meet the basic needs of IDPs, who face the threat of illnesses such as diarrhea and other water-borne diseases.  But physical ailments are only part of the problem, said a doctor from one of CARE’s local partner agencies in Mardan district.

“We have been examining about 200 patients per day,” the doctor said. “Of them 70 percent, mostly women and children, suffer from mental problems.”

Mazumdar said many of the survivors will carry lifelong wounds from the violence and destruction they have experienced. IDPs avoid speaking about what they have witnessed. “One seven-year-old boy was unable to speak for three weeks,” he said.

CARE is seeking funds that will enable mobile clinic workers to provide basic health care and psychosocial support to 11,000 children and women, Mazumdar said.

“If these children don’t get help coping with their emotional trauma, they risk suffering lifelong psychological illness,” Mazumdar said.  “Homes can be rebuilt, but young hearts may never mend.”