Issues pertaining to the earthquake affected areas are now given less space in the media even though rehabilitation is the key concern at present. This is more of a concern as the most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities have a limited window of opportunity before the monsoon rains fall and the winter once again approaches.
At ActionAid ERP emphasis is on needs, the communities identify through an interactive and participatory process. Two Community centres have now been set up and are being made operational through the initiation of activities such as health care, psycho social care and small enterprise etc. 14 more are in the process of construction but the activities have been started with the community based organizations.
All the four offices are actively involved in coordination with other organizations to address the immediate needs of community members with disabilities in the remote areas. In this regard Mansehra office has conducted meetings Cuban hospital to work jointly in an effective outreach. As initial step 304 patients from villages Oghi, Shamdara and Khatai have been examined. Similarly in Muzafarabad, physiotherapists were hired on temporary basis to visit the villages of Tanda and Batangai. In both villages they treated 11 disabled people, 20 were recommended physical exercises and 30 people were referred to Cuban hospital for further treatment.
Psycho social activities are ongoing with 22 female and 24 male participants from Muzafarabad, Battagram and Mansehra have been trained by Rozan in village Oghi, Mansehra. This was followed by 3 day training in Bagh where 28 people participated and will be followed up with refresher training in the coming two months. Additionally 5 persons from the areas of Battagram and Bagh attended a psycho social training in Islamabad from April 26-28, 2006. This was a slightly advanced level training and included topics on gender and communication skills etc. The aim of the training is to lessen the incidence of trauma and stress. ERP is providing follow-up support to the trained community members both women and men, to ensure that they use their skills in their respective areas.
In terms of livelihoods the field office in Mansehra has facilitated the setting up of two saw machines for to two persons in Shamdara and Khatai Union Councils. These machines are not only an income generating enterprise but will also be useful in the reconstruction of permanent homes which the communities are undertaking at present. Similarly in Muzafarabad the field team have started assessing the communitys needs to re-establish the agricultural activities and to provide them marketable technical skills.
ActionAid ERP has an ongoing agreement with Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SDPI) whereby the latter will assess ERP design and implementation process on a regular basis and identify strengths and weaknesses. To this end SDPI recently visited all the field offices to assess the pace of the work and to analyse the capacities of the field teams. They have identified the need to consolidate and provide holistic analyses for starting integrated rehabilitation activities. SDPI have also commented on UNOCHA for it role in coordination among the organizations at the union council level but not at the village level. For this they suggested that like-minded NGOs should form a consortium to address the needs in affected villages and make available regularly updated information organized at the village level.
Strengthening the capacity of ERP staff is an on going process. In this regard training on Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) has been arranged for the staff. This training will be conducted in two batches one for staff from NWFP and the other for staff from AJK. Importantly the field teams of Battagram and Mansehra had already been trained in the first batch whereas the staff from AJK will be trained in the first week of May 2006. The main purpose behind this initiative is to ensure that staff has the required capacity to use participatory methodologies in developing community led holistic and integrated initiatives in health, education, technical skills and other social, political and economic opportunities within a broader context of peoples needs. The aim is also to address the need for facilitating village profiles and plans for long term development.
In Bagh an extremely disadvantaged community (minority group) was identified living right in the middle of the city. In a catastrophe of this scale their needs had been totally overlooked by local government as well as international aid agencies. They do not have land of their own and all their rented homes have been damaged by the earthquake. ActionAid ERP after conducting feasibility proposed to provide prefabricated shelters to the community and lobby with the government of AJK to allot land to them. A total of 134 prefabricated shelters have been provided to this community at present. Additionally ERP has coordinated with Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which is launching a project to provide legal aid to affected families on property and compensation issues; to jointly support the sweeper community of Bagh. These people who belong to Bagh are equally affected by the earthquake and are still neglected by both the government and the aid agencies. ERP has raised the issue with the deputy commissioner and the military to accommodate these families in appropriate places.
Policy dialogues have been held in Battgram, Mansehra, Bagh and Muzaffarabad on the ERRA housing policy to solicit views of the local communities in these areas and at the same time to share these views with officials from ERRA, the local government and other national and international organisations. The main points that came out of this initiative were that government policies need to be more transparent and in line with the needs and priorities of the communities, government compensation is inadequate and their procedures linked to the housing policy lengthy and tedious. A letter was sent to the Chairman ERRA and copied to relevant governmental and non governmental organisations to apprise them of these issues and urge them to address the communities concerns.
ERP- gender unit has successfully organized two trainings of two days each for the field staff in the last week of the month in which all the field teams participated in two groups. On April 26, 2006 ERP has conducted its third monthly meeting with its field teams and partnership development unit. All the four field coordinators, one social organizer from each area, partnership development unit and ERP Islamabad staff participated in the meeting. The participants discussed a strategic plan for the next three years for ERP and later the field teams shared their monthly progress. Two members of the ERP and one member from legal rights unit who had visited Sri Lanka to attend a a training on Disaster Preparedness also shared their learnings and experiences with the other staff members.
EMERGING ISSUES
According to OCHA only 35 percent of internally displaced persons in AJK have returned to their native villages. The main reason for this is that many valleys in AJK still remain blocked and people cannot access them.
Communities that had moved out from their respective areas returned to their native villages from the tent villages. According to ActionAid ERPs assessment these communities had neither received government compensation nor any other relief and rehabilitation items.
The government in an effort to establish stricter curbs and controls over NGOs particularly INGOs. According to a government notification INGOs have to register themselves with ERRA even if they have previously registered themselves with the Government. INGOs also have to obtain a Non Objection Certificate (NOC) from ERRA to work in the earthquake affected areas
