Provision of Health Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons of South Waziristan Agency in Camps

Abstract

Since 2009, South Waziristan Agency (SWA) has suffered a number of violent armed conflicts between security forces and Taliban causing massive destruction, several thousand deaths and creating over a half million displaced people. Due to negligence of issues related to internal displacement in UN, international and national law, internally displaced persons (IDPs) were afforded very little health care help during displacement. This research was designed to contribute to a policy or model to be developed to provide health care services for IDPs. The three objectives of this study were: to investigate the prevalence of health related problems in IDPs living in camp according to their sex and age; to explore the causes of mortality in IDPs living in camp from their sex and age perspective: to indicate the current nature and range of health services availability to IDPs living in camp according to their sex and age. The research employed mixed methods in achieving the above objectives. It was conducted through surveys and indepth interviews (IDIs) with IDPs. Respondents for surveys were selected by applying systematic sampling technique with a random start. For this purpose 155 HHs were selected for survey & 5 respondents for IDIs in IDPs camps. This study found that children and old age people were affected the most by infections and diseases among many age groups while women in reproductive ages suffered more due to reproductive health issues as compared to men. The rate of mortality was also much higher among children and pregnant women as compared to other age groups in this study due to inappropriateness and irregularity of health care facilities. Although IDPs were affected by mental stress as much as physical one, still health related facilities of psychiatric help were totally absent in camps. Based on the fieldwork it is found that local health department in Tank was not capable to handle huge number of IDPs on its own and the study recommends international community’s health related interventions to deal with the situation. It also recommends that there is a need to study IDPs situation in other agencies as well to prepare a comprehensive policy document for IDPs of FATA.