Nilofer Afridi Qazi : July  2014

Bannu Observations

Recently I had the opportunity to visit Bannu district where the majority of the 500,000 plus internally displaced residents of  (primarily from MirAli and Miranshah), North Waziristan Agency have moved to escape the military operation called Zarbe e Azb (apparently) against the terrorists who continue to threaten the people of Pakistan.

This is not the first displaced population I have seen or engaged with close up, but the feeling of being overwhelmed never fails to leave. As one enters the garrison town of Bannu visibly under the control of and closely monitored by, the military roadblocks line all entrances of the town of approximately 1million (Pakistan has not had a census in 15 years hence it is difficult to ascertain exactly), a sense that a sleepy forgotten town has suddenly become the center of attention, is palpable. The streets, single lane dirt roads, badly paved, potholes all over are crowded with the new male residents, sitting on the roadsides on charpoys, broken walls, huddled in groups all over town.

Some of the smaller distribution points, of relief goods, from the world food program, are recognizable by the haphazard lines of turbaned Waziris crowding around an area for the relief goods. There is no sign of women local or visiting North Waziris in these public spaces. The only women I saw in public was in the clothing section of the main bazaar, 10-15 shops where shuttle cock clad women were shopping for upcoming Eid, browsing through bangles, reams of cloth for their Eid outfits or buying henna, heaped on carts, to decorate their hands in celebration of the upcoming end of ramadan.

The collected data thus far, suggests over 75% or ¾ of the internally displaced people are women and children thus naturally, one wondered where are the women and children in this small town? More importantly is the relief effort targeting women and children? If these women are not visible is the effort seeking to find them?

I was informed any attempt of the displaced women to access the distribution points has met with aggressive denial; both the local Bannu elders and the Waziri men, they object to women directly receiving relief goods or standing in ques alongside ‘others’ publicly. Hence after apparently a few violent incidents where men were seen beating women out of relief goods ques the army issued a public notice that no women would be allowed to come into the main distribution point at the sports complex.

The problem with this is obvious, since there is absolutely no way to ensure women and children are receiving the relief that is their share we have no way of knowing if goods and services are getting to the most vulnerable.

Further there are many, the numbers are unclear (Khwande Khor has an assessment of 90 families in February 2014) women headed households, widows, single women, women with elderly men/unwell men/young male children who are unable to access these goods or services on their behalf. This was an assessment they made before the operations started but the 1^st wave of IDPs had started to come to Bannu. There is an inter cluster (UN multi sector assessment underway) which is suppose to provide a better idea of needs across sectors which includes vulnerable families.

In the searing heat thousands lined up (men only) like sardines in tight lines under a thin straw canopy outside the Bannu sports stadium. Guarded and monitored by the army these displaced citizens wait for days on average I am told 24hours/3days to go through ‘security’ before they are let into the sports complex where the largest of the 5 distribution points of both food and nonfood items are stored.

 

The following is the procedure of verification for the internally displaced.

1.   Go to nadra office to share your CNIC card proving you are from NWA and receive a blue (if from Peshawar) or Green (in Bannu) card proving you are eligible for relief goods.

2.   If you do not have a CNIC card you will have to prove you are from NWA. This proof is established at the District Coordinators office where two ‘maliks’ from NWA (I assume they are from MirAli and MiranShah) who question you and ‘authenticate’ your credentials of the claim thy have come from NWA. Once you have the verification card you may go to the distribution points to receive goods and services.

3.   The sports complex is the largest distribution point where WFP & various relief charities have set up camps to give relief items. If you cannot access the sports complex you are unable to receive the total available relief goods offered to IDPs.

4.   Inside SRSP managing the NFI for WFP who also give another separate receipt, once a package is handed over, monitoring the family member’s entitlement of receiving a monthly package for 3 months. This data is uploaded in a database.

I saw separate distribution tents for each ‘agencies’ donated by different agencies/government officials/non governmental organizations:

1)  UNHCR/World food program managed by Sarhad Rural Support  Program Army/armed forces food packages and water

2) Army/armed forces food packages and water

The armed forces packages are food item

3) Best (a non-governmental organization)

4) Punjab Government: food packages and water

5) Government of Azad Kashmir

6) Zong/UBL distributing cell Sims and separate counters for cashing the transfers once activated.

7) Registration desk of SRSP on behalf of Fata Development Authority to register IDPs & register in the Database of WFP of the number of NFI distributed to which families to avoid duplication.

7a) two women SRSP registration officers in a separated tent to facilitate women

8) Lone social welfare official, responsible for assisting and facilitating children, minors, ‘orphans, lost from families, traumatized or drop out from schools’; this activity and department is currently ‘supported’ by UNICEF and will be further strengthened by the induction of SRSP support staff.

A very obvious observation is, since it is next to impossible to enter the sports complex, unless you are male, have a CNIC card with a registration card, you cannot access the relief goods or services on offer. Thus in light of the following constraints

1.   Televisions are not common in Bannu hence public messages are difficult to share. I did not see any loudspeakers, or public screens giving relevant public information targeting the internally displaced families.

2.   Radios are also uncommon amongst most families.

3.   Since the host shelters primarily consist of the 600 schools across Bannu there are no public information message platforms from which these people can access information.

4.   I did not see NADRA mobile units or any messaging from them in public spaces. It is very very clear children and many of IDP men and women especially women have no identity cards. The cultural barriers of accessing women have not been overcome and this is highly problematic. Both for human rights and security reasons the state cannot allow ‘cultural’ reasons to continue the deprive women from their basic right to have an identity card which is a tool through which they can independently access relief goods and services.

5.   The Sim card scheme is not accessible to women, both in terms of their inability to enter the sports complex (this service is offered) nor is it ‘allowed’. Once again the ‘cultural barrier of women having a ‘phone’ has denied them the cash transfer of Rs. 7000 from KPK Rs.8000 from Punjab and Rs 30000 ramzan package from the federal government is denied to women.

I am not sure how the majority of the Idp who may not have CNICs, B-forms for minors, or do not have the physical capacity to stand in line for days are accessing relief?

6. If you are a minor, or a young adult there is no way of accessing the social welfare services on offer INSIDE the sports complex to register your grievance. I spoke to the officer inside the complex and asked him, how did he expect children to get to him? He was visibly embarrassed and agreed but said someone from outsides lets him know there are children who need assistance and he brings them in? He shared some data: thus far since July 2014 1400 children had been ‘registered’ as missing from parents, orphans, traumatized, dropout from schools’. The services they offer are restricted too counseling, they have one psychiatrist. Assistance in reunion with parents through the army. I asked if providing them with a B form from Nadra was on the menu of services? The answer was non-committal.

6.   Since women cannot enter the sports complex. Their only access to any services are at the other smaller distribution points which excludes the charity relief packages, including the ZongSimcard cash transfers

Rs.7000+8000+30000=Rs45000 thus far.

Outside of the Sports Complex

There are 600 schools in Bannu have become shelters for the internally displaced families. These are also the centers in which non governmental organizations which are allowed to operate in Bannu provide direct services, carry out surveys of needs and provide some relief to women and children who are barred from public spaces and the sports complex distribution point.

For example, SRSP has a mobile truck service, which visits several ‘school/shelters/hosting areas’ daily dropping off NFIs and providing information otherwise unavailable. Thus far out of the 600 schools 250 have been visited. The problem is if the IDP has no green registration card they are unable to receive relief goods. Thus one hopes SRSP develops a list of these individuals/families so that nadra can visit them in these specific sites to rectify this gap.

Another relief organization, Khwande Khor also has made the rounds of these ‘school/shelters/host families’ to gather information and develop lists for the relevant authorities to bring them into the net of the official data. The cultural challenges have hindered efforts to access them and develop self-help coping strategies/mechanisms. This will be a huge challenge to overcome in the coming months when ‘friendly spaces’ are being designed to assist women to help themselves.

Another huge challenge as a result of the ‘cultural norms’ has been in the health sector. Because of the intensity of purdah women are unwilling to go or allow medical professionals to assist. On the other hand there are next no health facilities in Bannu, which are functional. The basic health units, district health units and the public hospitals are primarily without health care professionals and have little or no medicines. There are several case studies where panadol was offered for a variety of ailments.

The barriers as a result of the cultural norms will have to dealt with in any design intervention with women and children. This will be a huge challenge. Women have no or little concept of self-help, self-esteem or idea that they are able to seek or develop skills to cope in this current crisis. The psychosocial assistance will need to be designed at a very very basic level to introduce the idea of self-help.

I had an opportunity to observe the following. These schools are in pretty bad shape, hosting multiple related families. The water and sanitation situation is dire. The challenges of not being familiar with the importance of hygiene, knowledge of use of sanitation facilities and non-functional facilities available are huge.

At the end of August these schools are required to be available for the children of Bannu. It is quite clear these facilities will need to be revamped in a serious effort to restore them to some functional standard.

The educational assistance for the IDP children will need to be aware of the following. The IDP population is primarily illiterate. It doesn’t matter if they are children or adults, men or women. The literacy levels are in single digits. Thus any emergency education intervention has to keep this in mind. Multi age/gender sensitive literacy programs. In fact many told me including Waziri children, schools in NWA have been closed for the past 12-18months any way. I do not see Waziri families allowing their girl children to go too far for educational services either. Hence the new abode in which they will be transferred too will need to be close to ‘schooling’ facilities if girl children are expected to attend. Alternative models of home schooling can be developed if the local teachers or NGOs are allowed to operate in Bannu.

Access to Bannu

Very few organizations are allowed to operate inside Bannu. Without an NOC from FDMA PDMA (cleared by the armed forces) no organization is allowed to operate.

Foreign organizations are banned from operating in Bannu, this includes most UN agencies except WFP, UNHCR who also operate through partner organizations and operate from Kohat or Peshawar. SRSP, Khwande Khor, Sabayon are one of the few local organizations who have offices and are present in Bannu.

Camp management/lack of IDPs in camp

The message that the IDP have chosen not to live in camps because of cultural reasons and also have the warewithall not too is a myth apparently. The reason IDPs have not shifted to camps is because the state of camp management and facilities are abominable The camps have very low quality shelter, water and sanitation facilities disconnected from shelter facilities and infested with dangerous creepy crawlies with no shade for miles. Further the armed forces refuse to allow professional to set up or manage campsites. Furthermore camps have been set up in inaccessible areas where movement inside and outside is highly restricted. These restrictions will have to be lifted (management of camps and developing better facilities) before schools open and the current residents transferred to alternative shelter arrangements.

 I would highly recommend Cash for Work options developed for multiple services including developing camps for IDPs moving out of the 600 schools; further, keep Bannu clean and for community watch/security arrangements.

There are too many young Waziri men doing absolutely nothing. This is undesirable for many reasons. They lack basic life skills and this crisis will further exacerbate this.

In the Bazaar

There was normal activity in the bazaar, indicating the local economy hadn’t been disrupted. There were no relief items being sold which was a good sign that goods weren’t been overly distributed. Although I later heard from Bannu cousins that in the outer smaller bazaars some relief items have begun to be seen in the shops. I did not see this myself. Media or on ground verification is necessary for this. Nevertheless, food items are not in shortage in fact, there are a lot of food items, which have been stored by government.

There is curfew in Bannu most the day, hence shopping is done at specific times and those allowed to leave home are all busy buying before they are back under lock and key.

The food stalls were full; fruit vegetables were available in plenty. There were many chemists’ shops thus basic medicines are available if you have the money and some knowledge of what to take.

Khwande Khor Meeting

They are doing excellent work and probably the only organization present in all 49 union councils of Bannu district. They have networks of women and men and hence are an excellent platform from which training and accessing locals and IDPs.

They have been operating in Bannu since 2003.

Recommendations

1. Lift Restrictions on women accessing direct relief goods/ cash transfer SIM facilities.

2. Increase the distribution points. The current number are too few to cater for such a large number of families.

3.NADRA to increase mobile facilities and activity seek women and children to provide them with CNIC/B Cards. This will have to be accompanied by innovative public information campaigns keeping in mind information barriers in Bannu.

4. Cash for Work programs to begin immediately. There are too many young male adults, out of school, work and just doing nothing. With the restrictions on NGOs/INGOs from operating in Bannu there is no reason why this potential workforce cannot be mobilized to both help and self help.

5. Partner with Khwande Khor who are present in all 49 union councils of district Bannu through their women organizations and men organization networks. They have developed trust with the local families and have the ability to access where others cannot.

6.Multi Sector Programs which targets the regressive restrictive destructive cultural norms preventing women from helping themselves. Life skills both income/non income generating, hygiene have to be introduced. Many of the barriers are cultural and hence whether education, hygiene, skills, access to information all of these facilities will have to be designed keeping in mind and designing programs to ‘bring out’ the women. These programs will naturally have to 1^st target the men/elders and the decision makers/army to convince them these programs designed to encourage women to participate are necessary for the well being of the family, community and purpose of Zarb e Azb!

7. Programs, which will target families with local host families in Bannu, will have to include those host families. Whether it is food stipends, or any other direct services to avoid friction and discrepancies between IDP/host families.

8.Emergency Education programs will need to be cognizant of almost 100% illiteracy amongst all age groups and both genders. Children haven’t attended school in at least 18 months or not at all.

9.Currently the size of the family is considered to include husband, wife and approximately 6 children. The reality of NWA average family is 13-15 members with multiple wives. This discrepancy excludes registration of wives 2,3 etc. and the size of the ‘family packages’ both in terms of cash transfers and food/non food items.

10. consider relaxing the NOC for relief organizations especially those who can manage ‘camps’ and work with women and children.