May 8, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – With hundreds of thousands of people in northwest Pakistan fleeing fierce fighting in the region, international humanitarian agency Church World Service has personnel from its Pakistan/Afghanistan offices working to provide basic shelter, food, water and sanitation to those displaced in the region.

Initial assessments by CWS aid workers on the ground indicate as many as 800,000 are now displaced by the most recent violence, on top of conflicts that pushed out a half-million people in the last year. Ongoing combat between Pakistan government armed forces and Taliban militants, has forced governmental and non-governmental agencies to create camps for the displaced. However, thousands more are seeking shelter wherever they can: with families, with strangers, in caves and in fields, Church World Service workers report.

CWS staff on the ground are now moving response teams and relief items into the area to meet the needs of those who are in makeshift camps – thousands in small refuges where no sustainable food, shelter, water or hygiene is available.

Together with the Action by Churches Together-International Network, CWS is providing humanitarian aid to meet basic needs.

Church World Service has been active in Pakistan for more than 50 years, with programs in disaster management, capacity building, development and assistance for displaced people. The agency's Pakistan offices served as a lead agency in recovery following the country's massive 2005 earthquake.

Church World Service