Pakistan

Join us on a journey through the nutrition programme that Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) runs in the towns of Dera Murad Jamali, Dera Allah Yar and Usta Muhammad trying to alleviate malnutrition.

This piece originally appeared in The Express Tribune.

The internally displaced persons in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas have escaped the violence but are confronted with greater challenges.

“Home is a precious place. I would give anything to return to mine,” says 65-year-old Gul Bibi, as she gently rocks back and forth on a bed at the hospital set up by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Sadda, the second-largest town in Kurram Agency, FATA. The hospital is full of women who have babies and children in their arms or sleeping by their feet.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) treats nearly 10,000 malnourished children each year in the town of Dera Murad Jamali and surroundings, in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan. Levels of malnutrition in this part of Balochistan are among the highest in the country. Here, patients, caretakers, and doctors tell us reasons why.

Ahmed Lahi Day

Farmer, 65, from Tipul Shah. Above, he waits with relatives outside District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital in Dera Murad Jamali for his grandson to be discharged.

Tens of thousands of people fleeing major military operations in the Pakistani region of North Waziristan have crossed the border into Afghanistan over the past months, seeking refuge in Khost, Paktia, and Paktika provinces. In response, teams from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are providing medical and humanitarian aid in Gulan refugee camp, Khost province.