Temporary school emerges from quake rubble

The signs of panic are strewn amongst the rubble. School bags, books, pens, clothes and shoes, now covered in a thick layer of grey dust, lie abandoned in the collapsed classrooms of the Ali Akbar Awarn boys’ school in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. "I thought it was the end of the world and everyone was going to die," said 11-year old Jibran Rashid. Rashid’s teacher told his class to sit still in their chairs, but as the earthquake became more violent and the building began to shake, they fled. "I’m still scared if something shakes," says Jibran. Four boys died in the Ali Akbar Awarn school. Two were buried under rubble and two jumped from the second floor as the walls buckled around them. They died in hospital. Jibran was friends with all of them. "I often think of my friends who have died," Jibran says. A teacher points under a collapsed ceiling. A dark brown stain of blood is the only trace that a child died there. Science teacher Moni Ahmed keeps away; he carried the boy’s body and the memories are still raw. At least half of the 86,000 people known to have died in the earthquake were children. The earthquake, which measured 7.6 on the Richter scale, struck at 09:00 the morning when children were in their classrooms. Some 790,000 young people aged between 5 and 18 years were affected by the earthquake and 10,000 schools have been damaged or destroyed. At the school, the green courtyard where the boys once played now serves as a makeshift classroom. Benches and tables have been salvaged from the wreckage, garden hedges divide the classes and the staff room consists of a table and chairs next to the flowerbeds. With the first winter rains on Thursday, the boys must brave the biting cold and worsening weather conditions until two tented classrooms are erected. "They feel fear – the fear is always there," said Iqbal Kazmi, an English teacher. Kazmi said the most pressing needs for the children were shelter and food – many of his pupils still do not have tents and are sleeping outdoors with their families. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that some half a million survivors are still without shelter. The teachers have been visiting camps and talking to survivors in the city and surrounding villages, trying to persuade children to come to school. Of the 1,250 pupils that used to come here, only about 100 children have returned. "We’re encouraging the children to come to school and move. Coming to school gives them a sense of normality," said teacher Moni Ahmed. "Many families of the pupils fled, back to their villages and to other cities and towns around the country," he added. With scarce resources, the teachers here help as much as they can. Ahmed and his colleagues are erecting the two tents for classrooms, with help from five members of the Pakistani army. The children say that coming back to school takes their minds off the bad memories that still plague them. They talk to each other about the earthquake, remembering loved ones they have lost. "It’s good to be back. I want to come to school as I want to be somebody in the future," said 11-year old Kamran Moghul. But they say that the earthquake has changed them for good. "We used to sing songs before but now we’re scared and we try to read the Koran instead and think about God," Kamran said. The happy sounds of children playing can be heard from the top of the steep dirt track that leads to the Bandi Saman ‘safe play area’. Surrounded by trees and high up in the hills overlooking the city, some 100 children are playing cricket, football and badminton, while inside two tents children play with dolls and draw pictures. But behind the laughter, volunteer teacher Syma Nazir says there are signs of trauma. "They show a lack of interest and they sit on their own, looking into the distance. I can tell from the expressions on their faces that they are thinking about what happened," Nazir says. "But they are getting better and playing games has helped the children forget." Twelve-year-old Sundis Saddeq lost three members of her family as well as her house. She now shares a tent with 14 others. "I want to spend all my time here," Sundis remarked. The UK-based charity, Save the Children, has set up seven ‘safe play areas’ in Muzaffarabad and surrounding areas for boys and girls between the ages of five and 14. "It’s a safe place for children to play and somewhere for them to go other than being stuck in their tents," said Nick Mathers, an information officer with Save the Children. Each area receives a play kit with equipment for indoor and outdoor games. But soon bad weather will mean the children will be confined to tents, and the two tents at this safe play area are not big enough to accommodate all the children. It is a familiar story. "We’re waiting for more tents," Mathers said. Assessments undertaken by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Ministry of Education (MoE) have highlighted the need for tents for temporary school structures, textbooks and supplies, as well as training for some 25,000 teachers who perished or were injured in the quake.