Learning in difficult times

SUKKUR: Thousands of schools have been washed away, leaving millions of children without any source of education. However, schools have sprung up in tent cities to continue the education of the children.

A makeshift tent in Sukkur is one of the many tent schools that have sprung up, where hundred of homeless children receive education. Inayatullah, a teacher at the camp, expressed his sorrow that so many children had lost their homes, but was pleased with the interest displayed by the students towards their renewed schooling. “We are happy that the children are studying with interest and at the same time sad, because these displaced children have lost their homes, their books, and whatever they had. All schools are flooded. However, the children are studying with interest,” he said.

A student in the school, Guksher from Shikarpur district, relates his horrific tale of returning home from school one day to see floodwaters gushing into his house.  He said he had to watch while his younger sister drowned, while his family had to run without taking any of their belongings.  “We fled our home only with the clothes we were wearing. We barely saved our lives. Now we have a school here and we have been provided with new books, new pens, and we have a teacher too,” he said.

Millions of flood survivors are still homeless, with potentially fatal diseases threatening to bring a new wave of death. Aid agencies have warned that with so much farmland under water, in a country heavily dependent on agriculture, the crisis in Pakistan could persist for months.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2010.