Academy for Educational Development

AED Helps Restart Schools In Earthquake-Hit Areas of Pakistan

The earthquake that rocked sections of Northern Pakistan late last year destroyed entire cities and villages and left more than two and a half million people homeless and struggling for survival.

With a death toll of more than 88,000 and more than 100,000 injured, it was the most devastating earthquake for a century in the region, and many families were left devastated.

In the initial days after the disaster, AED staff who were in the area worked with local groups to help relief efforts, but more needed to be done. “Clearly these communities needed expertise and help to rebuild,” said Stephen F. Moseley, president of AED. “Our experience in Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch, and in Sri Lanka after the tsunami, taught us that rebuilding schools is essential to rebuilding communities.”

AED’s Board of directors created a fund to help restart five schools in some of the most remote parts of Pakistan. In fact, AED chose three schools—Government Girls/Boys Primary School, Government Girls/Boys Middle School, and Government Girls Middle School—because no other non-governmental organization was willing to travel to the remote villages of Tengyat and Makhdoomkot in Bagh, Azad Jammu Kashmir.

The other two schools supported by AED were the Government Girls/Boys Primary School and the Government Girls Middle School in Shohal Moizzulla, Balakot. Earlier this year, AED staff distributed to these schools some of the essential materials they would require to start classes again including: tables and chairs; floor mats; white boards; water coolers; and signs showing the schools’ name.

More than 400 students received materials such as uniforms, school bags, textbooks, notebooks, storybooks, pens, pencils, erasers, and paper. In addition, AED staff plans to hold workshops at the schools to train the teachers on trauma counseling, the use of low- and no-cost materials, how to teach several grades of students at the same time, and value of story telling.

“Providing training to the teachers is essential,” said Iqbal Ali Jatoi, AED’s country representative in Pakistan, in a report on the project. “They need guidance and motivation to restart their schools because they, too, have been victims of this earthquake.”