A team of 7 members of the DHR set off to Swabi and Mardan braving the heat and difficult terrain, to assess the situation of over 2.5 million refugees.

Children were wailing and crying due to the extreme heat and hunger whilst suffering from different conditions. A 13 year old girl named Saira had been taken to the field hospital due to a broken arm and lost leg suffered whilst fleeing from Swat. Her mother sobbed and simply said "all I want is to get back home where we can take care of our children in a proper way."

Many families relayed horrific tales of how they ran to save their lives. Some had left their stoves still burning, food boiling and tables set. Some ran with babes in arms, crying infants and dragging children and the elderly only to be met by the constant shelling and bombing injuring, maming and killing so many. Those that finally reached Mardan after 4-6 days of constant travel were lucky enough to be recived by the hospitable people of Mardan and the various camps. An elderly man shouted with tears streaming down his face "everything is ruined for a bunch of troublesome people, couldn't the army pick up this bunch of miscreants without harming and displacing so many innocent people?"

It was unnerving to witness fragile babies being born into this hostile environment. If mother and baby survive it can only be a miracle. 70,000 pregnant women are due to give birth in the coming months. In Sheikh Yasin camp alone 150 babies were born in a single day.