IOM is to provide basic toolkits for some 50,000 displaced families
who have returned to Buner district in Malakand division,
North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), to repair homes damaged in
fighting between the army and Taliban insurgents earlier this year.

The kits, which are funded by the USAID's Office of US Foreign
Disaster Assistance (OFDA), will include a shovel, pickaxe, adze,
hammer, nails, pliers, pincers, chisel, wrench, trowel, handsaw,
gloves, nylon rope and steel binding wire.

IOM will distribute the tool kits to registered families at the
same time as they receive distributions of food rations.

According to the authorities, over 70,000 families have returned
to Buner since July 13, when the NWFP government decided that it
was safe to start sending people back to the area.

IOM hopes to provide additional kits to the other 20,000
families, as well as to others who have returned to their homes in
Swat and Dir districts, which were also badly affected by the
fighting.

"These people are happy to be able to return home, but they are
worried about their future, with many having lost their houses and
other belongings. The toolkits are a first step in rebuilding their
lives," says IOM Regional Representative for West and Central Asia
Hassan Abdel Moneim Mostafa.

According to the NWFP Government's Emergency Response Unit, out
of more than 2 million registered and verified displaced people,
225,393 returned to the affected areas through 16 August 2009. This
includes 122,365 people to Swat, 69,630 to Buner, 25,473 to Dir and
7,925 to Shangla.

For further information, please contact:

Saleem Rehmat

IOM Islamabad

Tel: +92 300 856 03 41

E-mail: "mailto:srehmat@iom.int">srehmat@iom.int