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Plan Pakistan donates medicines for Afghan refugees

October 19, 2004

QUETTA, Pakistan, 19 Oct (UNHCR) -- Plan Pakistan, part of the UK-based charity Plan International, has donated essential life saving medicines worth $10,000 to the UN Refugee Agency for the benefit of Afghan refugees living in camps in Balochistan.

"The received medicines will help treating thousands of Afghan refugees in camps of Balochistan," said Surriya Kasi, associate programme officer in the UNHCR office in Quetta. "UNHCR has 19 Basic Health Units in several camps in the province where refugees receive treatment daily." Jehangir Panezai, Representative of Plan Pakistan at Quetta, handed over the medicine to Ms Kasi in a ceremony at the government of Balochistan's Medical Supplies Department warehouse on Tuesday. Ms. Kasi praised Plan International's Pakistan office for responding to UNHCR calls to aid refugees:

Jehangir Panezai, (right) Representative of Plan Pakistan in Quetta, handing over medicines to Ms. Surriya Kasi, (left) Associate Programme Officer UNHCR Quetta © UNHCR/B.Baloch

"The organization, after the fresh influx of 2001, has supported UNHCR in new Afghan refugee camps in sectors including hygiene promotion, sanitation, relief activities, education, and upgrading of health services."

Plan Pakistan, a UK based non-profit community development organisation, started operating in Pakistan in 1997 after an agreement with the government of Pakistan, helping local communities in areas like safe motherhood, child survival, education, water sanitation, community capacity-building and income generation schemes.

The organization is also working with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to implement a nation-wide project on birth registrations.

It started assisting Afghan refugees in November 2001 after the September 11 attacks on the United States triggered the US-led offensive to oust the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

"Plan Pakistan started cooperating with UNHCR for the relief of Afghan refugees in 2001 when Pakistan saw a new influx of refugees heading towards the country," said Jehangir Panezai.

"Plan Pakistan supported Afghan refugees by providing winter and summer clothing to a population of around 127,000 in new camps in Balochistan. It has helped UNHCR and the government to upgrade the District Headquarters Hospital in the border town of Chaman by improving the basic structure of the hospital," he said.

"We constructed a children's ward, built rooms for the nursing hostel and provided a waste disposal machine. Plan Pakistan also worked in other camps of Balochistan, helping refugees in different sectors.

"This was the first time that the organization got involved in relief activities anywhere in the 45 countries around the globe where it has a presence," said Mr. Panezai.

UNHCR, with the government of Pakistan and other national and international organizations, has been looking after the health of Afghan refugees in camps across NWFP and Balochistan since the early 1980s.