ROTA ACHIEVEMENTS
Pakistan Schools
Through Reach Out To Asia's (ROTA) Develop ROTAsia program, the charity is assisting a remote community in Kashmir, Pakistan to reconstruct its badly disrupted educational system in partnership with the Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS). The program is providing learning opportunities to approximately 3,000 earthquake-affected children and improving the quality of both primary and secondary education through access to knowledge and new technologies.
This project involves three phases: Phase 1 - building 19 permanent primary and secondary schools for both boys and girls; Phase 2 - furnishing and donating a fully stocked library to each school; and Phase 3 - twinning some of the schools to partner institutions in Qatar. This phase will also include teacher training and collaboration among students in both Pakistan and Qatar in addition to a number of other activities.
Overview:
The Pakistan project involves the reconstruction of schools in the earthquake affected areas of Union Council Nar Sher Ali Khan, Tehsil and District Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan.
Background:
The powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck the India-Pakistan border on October 8, 2005 caused many lingering catastrophes beyond the extensive initial damage in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Beyond the more than 90,000 people who were killed and approximately 3.3 million who were left injured or homeless, an estimated 1.6 to 2.2 million children were severely affected by the natural disaster, which created numerous educational challenges for the region. Not only were schools destroyed and people displaced, but the management and administration of the educational system ceased to function: education completely collapsed in many of the earthquake hit areas.
In order to support its brothers and sisters in Pakistan, ROTA (through the Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS)) joined efforts in an attempt to help restart educational activities in one of the most severely affected districts in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). The partnership involves ROTA's funding of USD 800,000 and QRCS's commitment to carry out project activities. Upon completion of the construction work, schools were handed over to the Pakistani government and teachers returned to teach.
Details:
ROTA through QRCS reconstructed a number of schools in Bagh, AJK and in the earthquake disaster area. The project includes three major phases: Phase I involves the reconstruction of 19 schools (initiated in February 2006 at a cost of less than USD 800,000); Phase II will include furnishing the schools with a fully stocked library; and Phase III will involve twinning some of the schools to partner institutions in Qatar. This phase will also include teacher training and collaboration among students in both Pakistan and Qatar in addition to a number of other activities.
ROTA is helping to secure a brighter future for the children in areas devastated by the earthquake in Pakistan.
