Just Peace International Inc
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Background Introduction

Likewise many Third world countries Pakistan also reserves a substantial amount of funds at local level for the welfare and prosperity of its citizens with the purpose of providing them with basic necessities of life, so that the standard of living of people could be raised. Hence it is a common observation that despite the exploitation of these funds the needy and poor people do not seem effectively benefiting from their effects.
The local population at village level is deprived of even the basic necessities of life. The main reason of failure of Government plans to benefit the needy is irresponsible behavior of policy making institutions. These institutions have a patronizing attitude toward the local population and they work on the principle of self interest ignoring their needs and priorities. Most of the time, decisions are carried out without consultations and participation of the concerned people.
Keeping in view this fact the need was felt to enlighten the deprived classes to work on the principle of self help as a tool of their empowerment. European Perspective (Greece based organization) and Just Peace International (A local Non governmental Organization) funded by Greek MFA took the initiative of conducting the training workshops in earth quake affected area Shangla. It was the first initiative to respond to the peoples needs in wounds recovery. It developed Community Members skills and fulfilled their needs by exploiting the resources available to them at the local level.
This particular training event focuses on the wounds recovery of villagers of district Shangla (earth quake affected area) which have been over sighted due to many reasons.  District Shangla is one of the Earth quack affected areas of NWFP Pakistan. People in the area are still suffering and they are under the severe stress and depressions. The people specially the women and children are the more suffered group.
There are some developmental agencies , who are mostly involved in the reconstruction of health and education facilities and few other basic infrastructures like street pavements, culverts, flood protection walls etc., but non of them are working on the serious issues like wounds recovery.
Through this training the resource person tried to make the people aware and sensitize on the principles of self help and participatory development approaches, effective utilization of their resources and finding workable solutions to their problems.
The Training was organized by Just Peace International by deputing Mr. Khan Muhammad who is legal advisor of JPI and having over 18 years of Experience in Training Community members, NGOs professionals and the Public Sector was hired as Resource Person to impart the training.  CV of Mr. Khan Muhammad, Resource Person is annexed at the end.

THE SHANGLA

The population of the district is now 512,212 as against to 434,536 shown in the District Census Report of 1998 which was 2.5% of the total population of the province. The population growth rate is 3.27% with an average household size of 8 persons per family. According to 1998 District Census Report, the percentage of male and female population is 51.496% and 48.503% respectively, while male to female sex ratio is 106. The literacy rate is around 14.5%. The disabled persons constituted 1.9% of the total population of the district. According to an estimate, 444 people lost their lives and 1925 got injured in 2005 earth quake. Overall 34% households were affected in the district. About 100% people are traumatized with variation of intensity wherein the children and women are on higher side.

The Earth Quake 2005

8th October 2005 an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale caused widespread destruction to vast areas of northern Pakistan.  The earthquake has already taken the lives of over 75,000 people, even more than that have been seriously injured and over 3.5 million have been made homeless and face the risk of disease, hunger and exposure to freezing temperatures in the mountainous region as winter sets in.
Relief Camps
Relief Camps were set up immediately in the outskirts of District Shangla at Besham a. These had seen extreme devastation and the loss of a large majority of the local children, who perished when their school building collapsed on top of them.
Relief efforts initially focused on:

Since then, relief work and support has been ongoing including vaccinating children, supplying more clothes, conducting trauma relief courses and a longer-term strategy of rehabilitation of these devastated communities.
There is also an innovative initiative underway, focusing on rebuilding homes using eco-friendly material that stays warm in the bitter winters, is earthquake proof, easy to build, long-lasting and low-cost.

THE TRAINING

This is the first ever project who initiated on the unfelt areas of human behaviors and attitudes. People react on various issues in a very different way.  The people neither feel quite normal in such a situations, nor do they feel comfortable even after the disaster is over. They are not the same as they were before the disaster.
In order to overcome on these issues this type of training was initiated in the area. The project planned the training activities which were confined to one tehsil of district Shangla. The project selected some villages randomly and the training was conducted. These trainings were on the wounds recovery. Fifty Seven Community Members attended this training.

Lesson Learnt

My wife and children are still carrying at night, especially when ferric wind happens to occur. I cannot leave my family alone. We need Radio programs and TV Programs for children and women to divert their attention and provide them entertainment said Latif Khan of Village Damoray District Shangla.

Presentation “Post Disaster Trauma Response”.

A resource person gave a detail presentation on the Post disaster trauma response and discussed it various effects briefly. A copy of her presentation is also attached at the end. Some of the key points shared by her in the presentation with the participants are as under:

What is trauma?
What kinds of violence cause trauma?

1. Trauma is an emotional shock that may cause long-term psychological damage.
2. Trauma is an event that invokes extreme anxiety or extreme helplessness.
3. A shocking, painful and bitter experience that overwhelms the individual's capacity to cope with at the time of its occurrence.
4. During trauma ,victim is in severe stress, having intense fear because of threatened death   serious injury or threat to the physical and psychological integrity of self and others.

Traumatic events may destroy the persons assumptions about safety, positive self-worth and meaningfulness in life. Examples are war, earthquakes, floods and torture.

Trauma comes from the Greek word “traumat”, meaning wound.

• Trauma is a deep wound that happens when something abnormally shocking, painful or harmful occurs and leaves us feeling overwhelmed and threatened (physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually).
•  Direct involvement or witnessing any of these can cause trauma:
–Natural disaster or accidents
–Serious illness
–War
–Sudden loss (home, loved one, friend)
–Physical abuse and sexual abuse
–Ongoing humiliation
–Exposure to media, communal or societal violence.
• Trauma impacts individuals and groups, however, not everyone reacts the same way. Some are more resilient than others. Many times, we recover successfully depending on our inner strength, wisdom, problem-solving skills and support groups. Resilience is the capacity to bounce back after adversity.

Violence can be caused by nature (natural disaster) or humans (person to person or group to group). Violence can be aimed at one person, a group, or a whole society.
Some examples of violence include:
Natural Violence: Hurricanes, tsunamis, tornados or earthquakes
Verbal Violence: Name-calling, intimidating, shaming, insulting, or threatening
Physical Violence: kicking, hitting, destroying objects or physically hurting others
Structural Violence: poverty, racism, or other situations where one group is harmed due to social injustice
War: A kind of violence that affects all social relationships, corrupts institutions, destroys natural resources, and influences people to accept violence as a normal part of daily life.

Wounds Recovery
          The Resource Person Mr. Khan Muhammad initiated the discussion by asking one question.

The participants replied that normally “we go the bereaved family and share the grief at least for 3-5 days. People in the village arrange food for their guests.  All the villagers offer fatheha during these days and the religious leaders gives sermon on the subject. The people discuss such events and recall past memories of his life.”
              The Resource Person put another question by asking them “What is the effect of this custom on the bereaved family in particular and the whole society at large?”
              The response “It is our religious duty, some said that it is our Pukhtoon culture, some said that it is tit for tat”.
The outcome of this discussion was that on one hand it is the religious duty and on the other it is the process of bringing back the grieved person or family to normal life. It is a form of counseling and wounds recovery.
This particular example was linked with the national and international community. Right after the earth-quake incident the national and international community came out for the assistance of the affectees at different level. They came here to share the grief of the locals. Through all these discussion and relevant examples the main confusion of the participants were made clear because some of the participants had this fear that the outsiders are assisting us.
          Similarly they understood the real issue of behavioral change due to earth quake shocks and traumas.  It was also brought to the notice that why people get tortured which leads towards violence.  All these examples were shared which normally happen in our society. The local experiences were linked up with the theory of trauma, violence etc.

Participants Views and Recommendations

At the concluding of the training the participants put the following views/recommendations:

1. Number of the training events should be increased.
2. Proper rehabilitation/counseling centers should be arranged on permanent basis.
3. Expansion of such training was recommended.
4. Radio Sets / TV Sets and Programs for Children and Women at night time.
5. Rehabilitation and Reconstruction should be carried with organized communities.
6. Exposure visits and recreation visits for affecties to be arranged.
7. Recreation centers for Children in schools and near community be developed so that children should come out of trauma.
8. Training on conflict resolution should also be organized.

Closing Remarks by the Elders of the Village:
The elders thanked the Resource Person for giving such a detail and informative training in a friendly way. They also thanked the local community people for participation and taking keen interest in the training and wished that these trainings will be continued. They also committed for multiplication and highlighting of this important message. They thanked the organizers and sponsoring agency “Just Peace International” and “European Perspective” for their financing such important training events in the neglected and remote area of Northern NWFP