EENET asia Newsletters : Symposium issue April 2006 Contents

Children of the Destroyed Paradise: Can We Take Education to Them?

Overshadowed by decades of conflict Kashmir may long have lost its reputation as the ‘Paradise of Earth.’ However, its unparalleled natural beauty was stretching beyond its boundary into the North West Frontiers Province of Pakistan - That scenario also changed on the sunny morning of 8th October 2005.

Paradise destroyed! Balakot, Muzaffarabad, AJ Kashmir - all turned into debris. It is hard to believe what it looks like now - as if thousands of mighty monsters played a cruel game of ‘bulldozing’ changing the area into a valley of death! Thousands of bodies are under the wreckage. In Balakot a mother was sitting on the demolished building. As we walked over the wreckage - the mother screamed: “No - oh don’t… go away - don’t disturb my baby - she is sleeping here!!”

Many of the child survivors witnessing the death of their families, friends and relatives- have themselves been injured or disabled. Their mental distress and trauma need to be responded to and reduced. Along with survival and protection care - revival of education, complimented by psycho-social rehabilitating activities, emerged as a matter of urgency.

But in such emotionally charged context, bringing normalcy to the lives of those who survived the catastrophe is not an easy job. Save the Children Sweden (SCS) in Pakistan tends to adopt a sustainable development approach. It maintains that in the reconstruction and rebuilding of lives and livelihood, community participation and engagement is non-negotiable. This article describes how we are taking a community based (including participation of children) approach to reviving education.

Education as the priority?
The magnitude of the earthquake was devastating. At least 17,000 students were killed in collapsing school buildings. Most of the victims were 4-16 years old, i.e. primary- and secondary school students. 450,000 aged between 5-9 years require immediate access to primary education. Yet, the quake also destroyed or damaged beyond repair more than 10,000 (90% of the total) of the schools in the affected areas. Also teachers suffered multiple losses and the teachers and students who survived are traumatized by the death of many of their pupils, family and friends.

Prior to the earthquake, access to quality education, especially for girls and other disadvantaged groups, was very limited. The post-earthquake situation therefore opened a window of opportunity to make education more qualitative and inclusive, especially for children with disabilities, including those disabled as a result of the earth quake.

We took this as an opportunity for immediate resumption of education activities in safe, protective and inclusive environments, thereby helping to create a sense of normalcy and routine. Our team chose to work with the community as well as the Government by complimenting its efforts to revive education in the government schools that were destroyed. We decided to supply basic materials to administrative aid, along with working with the government to aid planning and coordination of the emergency response.
Working within the ravaged villages where survivors are still staying, emerged as a challenge. We saw a school-teacher still searching for the dead bodies of his lost daughters. Harsh weather conditions, freezing cold, heavy snowfall, landslides, lack of communication due to geographical location, frequent aftershocks that continued to kill people, diseases caused by the cold and water polluted by the bodies of animals are now the common phenomenon that followed the earth quake. People were preparing for a second wave of death - which seemed to be inevitable as the winter approached. From November through to March this part of Pakistan experiences a 6-10 feet snow-fall. Shelter, food, security and medical treatment therefore came as top priorities. Survivors were desperate to secure the essentials of survival for their children and families. To them, education and psycho-social activities were understandably less of a priority. The uncertainty inflicted by the impending threats contributed to a lack of confidence and hope in people’s minds. They still were driven by the nightmare of death. This is particularly the case given that even in normal situations of typical winter snowfalls, schools close since it is dangerous for children to wade through the snow-covered, slippery narrow mountain paths during that part of the year. The community therefore did not show much interest in constructing schools before the winter was over.

But it was imperative for us to enable people to foresee the broader scenario and to prepare for that. For we believe that quality education also entails psycho-social activities-with view to gradually bring children back to normal daily routines by enabling them to overcome trauma. SCS assumed that opportunities for education would encourage families to stay in their locality and rebuild their lives and livelihoods. But to generate such activities children would need a safe place to be, speak out, play, do drawings and paintings, and, of course, study. Once the 8 foot layers of snow cover the valleys, children will be left without access to outside interaction, recreation and of course education. Such a situation is bound to increase levels of mental stress and depression for both children and adults. This would impact how adults and children interact and could increase the chances of physical and psychological punishment or abuse. Though the community participated in education provision by creating inclusive and protective learning environments, to enable the community and the teachers to work with all children, alternatives to abusive punishment and health and hygiene education were important other objectives.

Our community mobilizers were intensely engaged in motivating the village committee to construct schools. As an extension to the main school structure, a small room was also constructed as Child Development Centre for psychosocial support, safe play, and linking the out-of-school children with school. In all motivational discussions with the community the SC team made efforts to involve girls and boys. The team was conscious not to work with children in isolation of their families, neighborhoods and the community at large. Girls, boys, youth and elderly people taking part in constructing a children’s health unit in the Kary village in Siran Valley. The women prepared the mid-day lunch for all those working.
As a policy we do not provide the finances for the land-nor for the school structure, or the labour. We provided some CGI sheets to cover the school structure once it has been constructed by the villagers and the materials for psycho-social activities and supports a female psycho-social teacher (who is also recruited from the village). SC supports her training so that she can generate and facilitate the activities for quality education and psychological support. Our team and the Social Animators continuously work to mobilize the community to re-construct the school. It is an intense engagement at the grassroots level. Yet we should not overlook the real possibility that the man who is going to donate his patch of land for a school, may be a father whose own child is now sleeping under the debris of a destroyed government school. Does he need to build a school? How do we approach him? Yes, such fathers are taking spades into their hands to construct a school for other children.

Conclusion: Thus keeping community mobilization at the core we have been closely working with the District Education Department and other actors in the field. Empowerment of sections of the society like the marginalized, the poor, women, girls and boys, by strategically addressing the power structure it tends to build a community owned inclusive education structure with equal access to all. This approach, though with many challenges -has gained appreciation of different quarters, and had made some progress. Some schools are already built - you can enjoy the enchanting girls and boys - playing around, coming back to study. But many hundreds more remain to be built.
There is still a long way to go …

Shyamol A. Choudhury and the support team: Sadaqat Shah Roghani, Samreen Murtaja, Inamulla Zia Uddin, Ghulam Qadri can be contacted via e-mail : shyamdachoudhury@yahoo.com, Fax: 091-5840349 or mail: Save the Children Sweden, Pakistan Program, 60-C (5), University Road, University Town, Peshawar

EENET asia Newsletters : Symposium issue April 2006 Contents