Returning home: IDPs starting over with foreign support

ISLAMABAD: In Rashakai, Bajaur Agency, where formerly displaced families are starting over again, brick homes have been built with international support. People were forced to flee during the operation which ended in April 2011. Ahsanullah and his family were among those selected for one of the 250 one-room UNHCR-funded shelters across Bajaur, stated a press release issued on Tuesday. He told UNHCR representative in Pakistan Neil Wright and minister for states and frontier regions, who were touring Bajaur Agency, that he returned to his village nine months ago after living in Jalozai camp for three years. He was grateful for the assistance he had received, but said more help was needed for returning families, as the town has been heavily damaged by more than two years of conflict.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2012.