Established in 1989, Sungi Development Foundation is a right based development and advocacy organization, working for empowering the marginalized with a vision to establish a prosperous society. Sungi responded swiftly to natural & human made disasters since 1992 including recent crisis of IDPs (Internally Displaced Pakistani's) by supporting 24,670 households & earthquake 2005 by providing emergency support to about 100,000 households for relief and early recovery. In rehabilitation and reconstruction phase Sungi was able to benefit about 550,000 affected men and women during the last three years. Sungi also responded to the earthquake of 2008 in Balochistan and flood relief in Sindh of the same year. Other disasters that periodically struck various communities were also responded to by the Sungi Disaster Management Program. Sungi is a member of HAP (Humanitarian Accountability Partnership) and is implementing HAP principles in all its interventions throughout the project phases. Proper complaint mechanisms are in practice for being accountable to beneficiaries. The capacity of staff, stakeholders & community is being built on HAP principles.

The IDPs crisis that has caused large-scale displacement displacing more than 2.2 million people from Swat, Buner and Dir is also being responded by Sungi since September 2008. These people faced enormous problems either in camps, or host families. So to fulfill the needs of IDPs from Swat, Buner, Dir & Shangla living with host families or rented houses; Sungi implemented a number of projects in districts Mardan, Swabi, Lower Dir, Abbottabad, Mansehra & Haripur. Sungi has been one among the major responders to the IDPs crisis.

In September 2008, Sungi provided food aid to 1,025 families in Mardan & Lower Dir while in December 2008 NFIs (Non-Food Items) were distributed to 1,000 families in the same districts. On May 09, a team of Sungi staff left for Mardan & Swabi to make initial assessment & distribution of food, tents and blankets. Sungi provided 229 tents, 200 food packages & 916 blankets to the most vulnerable, where special focus was on women & children. Church & minorities were also provided with relief items to fulfill their needs.

On May 12, Sungi took initiative to facilitate district government & social welfare department to register the IDPs living with host families in district Abbottabad at Jalalbaba Auditorium. Banners were placed on visible places to make IDPs aware of registration venue. During the registration process detailed assessment was also conducted for future interventions. The basic needs assessed for the families were shelter, food, health. They were psychologically very much affected.

Sungi conducted detailed assessments in Mardan, Swab, Abbottabad & Haripur with its partner organizations that enabled Sungi to implement Cash for Choice Project by which 3,060 families benefitted in Phase-I during month of May-June 2009. The cash grants of Rs.8,000 and Rs.12,000 were provided to beneficiaries having family size 1-5 and more than five respectively. In Phase-II of this project starting from July till September 2009, Mansehra district was also included & up till now 9,257 families benefitted i n five districts.

Sungi conducted detailed assessments in Mardan, Swabi, Abbottabad & Haripur with its partner organizations that enabled Sungi to implement Cash for Choice Project by which 3,060 families benefitted in Phase-I during month of May-June 2009. The cash grants of Rs.8,000 and  Rs.12,000 were provided to beneficiaries having family size 1-5 and more than five respectively. In Phase-II of this project starting from July till September 2009, Mansehra district was also included & up till now 9,257 families benefitted in five districts.

He Recent IDPs crisis had also highlighted the limitation of the current reactive and emerging response by different stakeholders especially the Social Welfare Department (SWD), who had taken key role of IDP registration and successfully completed it despite a number of capacity issues. The devastating IDPs crisis brought about an acute awareness among government institutions and communities of the critical need for their capacity enhancement.

 While working with the department in districts Sungi realized this as a capacity Gap and on the request of the department and the Ministry of Social Welfare and Women Development, Govt of NWFP, Sungi with financial assistance of Oxfam Novib initiated a capacity building initiative for the five district offices and directorate of SWD. MoU was signed to enhance the level of coordination, efficiency and effectiveness of the emergency response and preparedness in District Mardan, Swabi, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Haripur and Directorate SWD. Sungi provided one MIS expert, one data entry operator at each of five districts & necessary equipment was provided including Directorate SWD. The ownership of equipment shall be transferred to SWD on successful completion of the project i.e end of September 2009. MIS experts are carrying out sessions with SWD staff to enhance their IT (Information Technology) skills and MIS system is being developed to keep better record of data for current and future use. The data entry operator is punching the data to make it available in soft form.   

Sungi with the support of Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe is implementing a project "Humanitarian Assistance to Conflict Affected (IDPs) outside the Camps". This project aims to support 2880 IDPs families with Health & Hygiene (H&H) kits; awareness raising sessions on health & hygiene; jerry cans; and food packages. The project is being implemented in District Mardan. Initiated on 15 May, 2009 and will go on till 15 Nov, 2009. Support is provided to IDPs after detailed assessment with the help of local residents, by teams comprising of trained volunteer women and men who have visited each family in their place of refuge.

Food aid was provided to 200 families in Mardan during the month of June 2009 with the in kind support of CWS (Church World Service). Additionally, Food and NFIs are being provided to 2,200 & 4,500 families respectively in Mardan, Swabi since July and will end by September 2009. 

Furthermore, Sungi is thankful to individuals who provided their voluntarily services and donations. Donations of Rs. 1,295,856 were received from philanthropists through which 140 families were supported with cash grants & ovens (Tandoor) were installed in China Fertilizer Camp at Haripur.