As a part of a Health and Hygiene promotion campaign in the surrounding areas, FIDA arranged a debate competition for school children in Tehsil Paharpur of District D.I.Khan. Eight students from four different schools participated in the final competition.

The following students won prizes for their participation:
    1st Prize - Noman Shah (Model School)
    2nd Prize - Sanullah (City Science School)
    3rd Prize - Muhammad Riaz (Gov't High School No. 2)
The debate competition was followed by a town clean up activity with the participation of all the school children.

To see the news report on this activity, click here. To see newspaper clippings, click here.

Distribution of UNHCR tents and NFIs is continuing for verified IDP families who were left out of the previous phase of distribution.

In partnership with IRD, FIDA is constructing individual and communal water and sanitation facilities for IDPs and host communities in various Union Councils of DI Khan and Tank. For more about this project, look at the photo page.

With the assistance of International Rescue Committee, FIDA has set up a medical camp at a hospital in DI Khan to meet the needs of displaced people in the surrounding area. To date, FIDA's medical team has treated over a thousand IPD families.

The FIDA team has produced a short video highlighting all those involved in the IDP relief efforts. The song title, "Hum Sath Hain," translates as "we are together."

Click here to see the video and hear the song.

FIDA has begun distributing tents that were generously donated by ShelterBox for IDPs from South Waziristan. The relief materials are going to communities and families who have not yet received support, many of whom are living without any form of shelter. The tents are all-weather and are well-suited for the cold winters and harsh summers in this area. As stated in ShelterBox literature:

At the heart of every ShelterBox is a ten-person tent. It is custom made for ShelterBox by Vango, one of the world’s leading tent manufacturers, and is designed to withstand extreme temperatures, high winds and heavy rainfall. Internally, each tent has privacy partitions that allow recipients to divide the space as they see fit.

Faiysal AliKhan, Executive Director of FIDA, recently appeared on BBC World to discuss the situation in South Waziristan and the relief efforts undertaken on behalf of the IDPs. Watch his interview here

Refugee flood reveals human cost of South Waziristan's invisible war

How Pakistan injustice aids Taliban

   
Following the announcement of intensified military operations, FIDA and Social Welfare Department have started a second phase of registration for IDPs arriving from South Waziristan.


A project report on previous registration is available here.

FIDA celebrated Hand Washing Week with 4,685 students in public and private schools in Dera Ismail Khan. The students participated in question & answer sessions and learned proper hand washing methods through pictoral charts and interactive games. FIDA’s Public Health Promoters led students through a physical hand washing and nail cutting exercise.

     

FIDA has begun work with Oxfam GB to provide Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services to internally displaced people in Dera Ismail Khan. FIDA has already distributed over 1400 hygiene and household item kits to IDP families and has conducted health and hygiene awareness sessions as part of the distribution process. Oxfam and FIDA engineers are working to identify water and sanitation schemes in host communities for rehabilitation, repair and new construction.

           
Click here for more photos.

Yesterday, FIDA began distributing non-food items (NFIs) for UNHCR in Dera Ismail Khan. We reached over 1,000 IDP families in the first two days. Help desks were available for people with special needs or questions about the registration and distribution process. FIDA also arranged for community laborers to assist with transportation of the kits.

       
Click here for more photos.

During the month of August, FIDA worked with the Social Welfare Department to assist in registration of IDPs from South Waziristan Agency. Registration was carried out at three points in District DI Khan and one point in District Tank. Because of the harsh weather conditions, all registration sites were equipped with fans, drinking water, seating arrangements and shaded areas.

Registration officially ended on 15th August and the information is now being verified by NADRA.

With registration completed, it will now be possible for the affected communities to receive aid and assistance. FIDA will continue to work with various partners in order to provide assistance in the following areas: protection, non-food items, emergency shelter, water and sanitation, health and hygiene and access to primary medical care.

A new project we'd like to highlight is our Access to Justice project. We are doing this pilot project in partnership with the Governor's Development Program, the DCO and the Bar Association.

In addition to a legal aid center at the District Court, FIDA is working to establish small arbitration centers outside of the city where community members can use traditional dispute resolution techniques to settle minor legal issues. The jirga system is a holistic and comprehensive approach to community justice, which relies on oral case precedent.

Our team members are also holding legal awareness forums to educate people, particularly women, about the legal system and their basic rights.

Look at the photo gallery for more pictures of this project.

Welcome to FIDA's Blog. We've created this space so we can post updates on our projects and let you hear directly from FIDA team members working in the field. We hope you enjoy FIDA's new look.