Heart-wrenching experience!

By Dr. Muhammad Hafizullah

 “I feel worse by the evening and I get headache specifically in the occipital region,” the word 'occipital' fell on my ears like a bomb shell. It conveyed to me that I was not talking to an illiterate person and the patient was extremely careful in the choice of words.

I raised my eyes and looked at the person again. She was in her mid thirties and her eyes beamed intelligence. Setting aside the detailed history, my immediate next question was about her education. She smilingly conceded that she had been to a university and had masters in sociology. The patients before her were usually young children complaining of diarrhoea and rashes. It was a real shock for me that even persons like her have been forced to take refuge in camps.

In a few minutes with the help of the doctors on duty over there, we organised for her services to be utilised as a teacher in a make shift school, of course in a makeshift camp.   

The location was Saleem Sugar mill IDPs camp, a couple of kilometres away from the motorway exit for Charsadda. Here a camp was established for IDPs escaping from Swat. So far, 702 families have been accommodated in four clearly marked sectors. Number of persons inhabiting the camp is around three thousand and seventy five hundred. The hierarchy was clearly defined and most people at the helm of affairs knew what they were supposed to do. I could feel the sincerity of purpose and willingness on the part of the administrators to put in extra for their guests.

We went straight to the section assigned for the health care. The large coaster of Khyber Medical University parked outside the camp, made our job easier to determine location of the camp.

The medical camp was established by Social welfare Society (SWS) of KMC with the generous help of KMC Alumni Association of North America, APPNA Association of Physicians of Pakistani descent in North America and Khyber Medical University. The camp was housed in a seven-room building.

Two offices were being used by doctors to run a general clinic - one for males and the other for females. This was the place where I also participated in seeing a few patients. There were no formal desks and couch or stool for patient. Used sofa sets were being used for patients and doctors, with a little table sporting bare minimum required for examining patients like a stethoscope, BP set and thermometer. Patients waited uncomplainingly for their turns. The well natured young medical officer was offering useful services flanked by the young doctors to be of SWS. Medicines were being offered free of cost with careful documentation by the angels of SWS. They were offering all types of medicines with plenty of prayers in return. The room was stuffy and had a lonely ceiling noisy fan but that did not dampen the enthusiasm of medics. I was taken to the coaster which had many boxes full of a range of oral antibiotics- syrup and tablets, pain killers, cough syrups, vitamins and de-worming drugs. I was very impressed by the zeal of the students who convincingly pleaded cases for a patient requiring hearing aid and another young lad requiring an artificial limb. I, always, fall in for my young house staff who plead for their patients as I admire doctors who identify themselves with their patients and more importantly feel responsible for them. There and then, we decided to extend all possible help to similar patients. Their attitude was caring and they showed respect while communicating with patients - elder and younger without any discrimination of gender.

The verandah was being used for registration of IDPs gathered for distribution of non-food items being disbursed by SWS. The young and active medics, had put in days of labour, to make bags of items bearing the logos. Each bag contained a water cooler, plastic utensils and glasses, mosquito repellant sprays, medicated soap and towel. They had prepared more than seven hundred bags, choosing the items after a lot of debate and research. 

They chose a medium sized water cooler sufficient for a family and which could be handled by young children - who are normally assigned chores like these. Personal and collective cleanliness remained the focus of all interactions with all ages. Dettol medicated soaps are distributed extravagantly to inculcate the habit of hand washing and wishfully reduce infections during all medical consultations. Every registered family has a pink form carrying the details of the family and on the back of it all items being distributed are entered legibly. While going through a few forms, I gathered that most families had access to tents, mattress, a fan, plastic matt and plastic utensils - some with more and others with lesser entries. Every family has a head or representative and then every sector has a head called as 'Shura' member displaying a plastic coated card for easy recognition.

Instead of everyone coming for the collection of non-food items, Shura members of a sector are requested to collect items in bulk for further redistribution. This, I found, was a very satisfactory arrangement where discipline was being enforced and the residents were being used for transparency and more importantly to keep them busy. The relatively young members of Shura waited patiently in a queue and helped with documentation and organization unwearyingly.

Separate rooms were allocated for 'organisational set up' sporting large display boards, carrying names of individual in charges and organisations, involved in relief work in the field of food, NFI, water and sanitation and health. Security had its own section and a NADRA van parked outside the offices was attracting a large crowd - apparently busy in registration.

 Quite a few volunteers accompanied us as we went around the camp. Tents were pecked in according to a set plan, offering enough breathing space in between. All tents had a plastic mat, some had mattress and most had pedestal fans bearing the logo of 'Khadim Punjab'. The heat was unbearable at three in the afternoon and most males were outside the tents braving the heat under tree shades. Females along with young children were finding little, if any, respite in the tents. Boys in their teens were busy among themselves-but absorbed in activities without any purpose! Most people had little to complain about prepared food being served thrice a day. Every sector had its own area of hygiene. UNHCR had erected bathrooms and practical latrines - very easy to maintain and pleasantly were odour free.

The gentlemen complained about snakes as the premises had been abandoned for a long time. Many asked for mattresses and others demanded beds.

Most people had gloom written all over their faces with only one question to ask, "What was their crime and why did they have to pay such a high price for their uncommitted sins?" Some elders dared to ask, "Thanks for all the help, when we shall go back?" My heart was sinking as I exited the camp and some young children waived me good-bye. What sort of stories will these children tell their children after a few decades? And hopefully we do not take away their pride and teach them instead to extend hands in front of others!  I just prayed that we were not institutionalising begging and we do not convert our hard working honest people into alms seekers!