We have received details of a soil erosion project for Kohkot village. This village was one of the worst hit in the whole district of Poonch and we went to visit it myself directly after the earthquake. We built 53 shelters for 53 families of this village.
NRSP, after consultation with the villagers and their engineering dept. have designed a soil erosion project for this village so as to save them from suffering further damage through constant land-sliding and soil-erosion. Many villager’s homes and surrounding land which they use for crops will be strengthened through this project.
Money for this project has been collected but we require a further 3800 US dollars to be able to complete this project.
This is an appeal for raising 3800 US$. Hope friends of the CST can pitch in for this important project. Details of the project can be sent on request.
Government Girls College, Rawalakot
This post provides updates about Kalkalan school, Girls college Rawalakot and soil erosion project for Kohkot village. Please note the appeal for funds for the erosion project.
Kalkalan One Year School Programme
The Kalkalan one year school programme in collaboration with NIRE has completed its third month of literacy training. Apart from the one or two absentees all students (40) have passed their monthly tests that were conducted to monitor their progress. The teaching quality was also assessed and found to be ‘good’ and ‘satisfactory.’
After the literacy training the students will go on to learn proper primary school subjects such as Math’s, English, Urdu, Science, Geography and History. The aim will be to help them catch up with FIVE YEARS OF SCHOOLING in the next nine months. So wish us luck.
GOVERNMENT GIRLS COLLEGE RAWALAKOT
The shelters for the Govt. Girls Degree College for Women have been constructed with the technical help of the engineering department of NRSP Rawalakot. As is obvious in the pictures the shelters are of good quality and will help the girls who are studying for their FA (12th grade) Bachelor’s and Master’s program to complete their studies in relative degree of comfort. The winter is nearly upon them with predictions of severe snowfall. These shelters will keep the students warmer than the open air they were studying in. Thanks to all donors for this important contribution in helping the earthquake survivors.
AWARD GIVING CEREMONY AT HAVELIAN
We in collaboration with National Institute of Research and Education (NIRE) held an award giving ceremony on the 26th of Nov, 2006 at Havelian. The ceremony was held for distributing certificates and prizes for the teachers and students of 5 centres who have recently completed their 3 month Jugnoo literacy and simple arithmetic programme. It was an honour for us and NIRE to have the guests come all the way from Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar to attend this ceremony.
The ceremony involved the children and young girls presenting various speeches, skits and a tableau. The tableau involved children acting out various roles in response to Allama Mohammad Iqbal’s poem “Lab Pe Ati Hae.” It was really touching to see these children who had just recently learned how to read and write presenting a whole performance.
The most important part of the ceremony was when the young women and the older women (mothers and in some cases grandmothers) were asked to read out from random selections. It was quite moving to see them come near the stage, but as they had never had the experience of being on a stage, they decided to sit on the ground and read out their selections because that was the way they were used to in their own homes and villages. One could sense their hesitation and nervousness but it was amazing that they were able to read out what they were given to read. Some of them talked of how grateful they were to be given this chance to learn how to read and write.
During the course of the ceremony we learnt of the amazing fact how in one of the centres, the teacher was the daughter and the student was her mother.
Mr. Emran Akhtar gave a short speech of encouragement to the students. He personally distributed qualifying certificates to the students of the first centre.
These teachers and students belonged to villages which were affected by the earthquake and most of the students were initially living in the big government and UNHCR sponsored tent village set up soon after the earthquake at Havelian for the worst affected earthquake survivors.
The tent village catered for nearly 8000 people, mostly women and children who had no shelter to be able to remain in their villages. We in collaboration with NIRE started 5 literacy centres for the benefit of women and children early in the year within the premises of the Tent Village. The aim of the centres was:
a) To help the traumatized survivors by providing an educational activity which could, first of all, help them to get over the trauma
b) secondly, by becoming literate, the survivors could get an opportunity to have further control over their lives.
The objective was to offset the feeling of helplessness and loss by a sense of empowerment with the ability to read and write and use everyday arithmetic. Moreover respect for the individual in the community (in this case, grandmothers, mothers and children) increases manifold when they become literate.
The successful completion of these initial 5 literacy centres motivated us to start another 5 centres in the Tent Village at Havelian. Unfortunately when those centres had completed 25% of their educational program the Govt. decided to uproot the Tent Village, expecting the survivors to go back to their villages. This was a big hurdle for CST and NIRE as the teachers and students were very keen to continue their literacy program. Therefore, after a need-assessment WE and NIRE decided to start another 5 literacy centres within and around Havelian Town. It meant extra effort and financial input from us but the keenness of the students and teachers was a deciding factor to continue and start 5 more centres.
The award giving ceremony that was held on the 26th of Nov was for these last 5 literacy centres where approximately 130 students mostly women and girls have completed their 3 month educational programs and are now able to read simple newspaper stories and are able to write simple letters. Their program also includes simple arithmetic so that they become proficient in simple everyday math’s for use at home and at the bazaar.
After completion of the ceremony women and children came up to us with a plea. The women asked: “What will happen to our children now that they have finished this 3 month program?” The Pakistan government does not have any schools for girls in their villages. Being a conservative society, the girls are not allowed to travel to far off villages to gain an education because of feelings of insecurity. They requested that a one year program be set up for them.
* We are now planning to set up a ONE YEAR PRIMARY EDUCATION PROGRAMME on the same model as the one set up in village KOLKALAN. This provides 5 years of education in one year for about 35 to 40 children from ages 8 to 15. At the end of this program the children get a qualifying certificate which enables them to start attending regular school from class 6 onwards. The competencies gained in English, Urdu, Math’s, Social Science and Science is the same as set by UNICEF standards for class 5.
The cost of this programme will be US$ 3,500/- approximately.
* We would also like to start another 5 literacy centres on the same lines as the ones set up this year for more of the earthquake survivors in this same region of Havelian, district Abbottabad.
The cost of these 5 literacy centres will be US$ 2,500/- approximately.
The aim of our programs is to provide quality education to the poorest and most disadvantaged section of the rural communities.
If you have any further queries, please feel free to contact us. We thank you for your continued support.
NEW SCHOOL UPDATES: OCTOBER 2009
October Updates: New Schools
We would like to share the good news that we are about to open 5 new schools soon. Two will be in Bangish colony in Rawalpindi where the success of our literacy centre resulted in the request of the women of that area to open more such schools.
Three accelerated primary school centers will be opened in the Sanda Sarr area within Dist Mansehra where the earthquake left a lot of victims. My children and I visited the one year accelerated school program that is already functioning there in July.
Our report regarding the school visit will be on the website soon.
It was wonderful to monitor the educational progress of these children who had seen so many hardships. Within a period of 3 months, they had all started to read and write basic Urdu and were able to add and subtract from chocolates that I threw on the ground as a Math quiz. We met with the Elder of that area who had allowed us to use his premises for opening our school. It was on his request and from our research regarding the scarcity of schools in this area that we decided to open 3 more schools in this area.
We were responsible for distributing food items to the refugees fleeing the Northern areas in Ramzan.
Now we have to gear ourselves for the big Annual Camp at the end of November.
