Japanese siteHealth Care in Pakistan
About This Project
Thirty-five kilometers southwest of Peshawar, Pakistan, is the Siam Chateau Afghan Refugee Camp. About 20,000 people live there, but they have received little support from the international community. The local people longed for a small medical clinic at the site, so ANT-Hiroshima worked to establish one over a period of 12 years. Today, this clinic is run by the local people and serves as an invaluable source of medical services in the area. ANT-Hiroshima has paid a number of visits to the refugee camp and clinic and our support, starting in 2002, has continued to the present day.
How This Work Began
In 2002, we received an email from Robert Ottisch, the secretary general of HOPE '87, an NGO based in Vienna, Austria. The message described the grim situation of the Afghan refugees at the refugee camp outside of Peshawar. Because the situation at the refugee camp echoed memories of the difficult conditions in Hiroshima in the aftermath of the atomic bombing, ANT-Hiroshima sought to give greater hope to the people there, and Executive Director Tomoko Watanabe paid her first visit to the refugee camp soon after. Seeing the reality of life at the camp, Tomoko felt that support for the people's health and hygiene was urgently needed.
