IN THE STORY: Creating a Sense of Normalcy...

More than half of the 3 million displaced people are children having very acute needs. Shakeela is one of them. She is one more 395 girls enrolled in the NCHD transitional schools at Sabzi Mandi Camp Mardan. Most of the teachers in all the 15 transitional schools are working on voluntary basis, and NCHD has provided school bags and stationery items along with some recreational material like footballs etc.

“Fear of Taliban and then the unavoidable military operation in my area of Deer were the reasons which forced all the families in my hometown to leave our homes and lands and become displaced in our own country”, said Sakeela of 12. The journey towards safer areas during the military action was another calamity they had faced. Her family which consists of nine members including four sisters and three brothers traveled two days on foot without food to reach Batkhela.

She was in fifth grade when Taliban demanded the people not to send their girls to schools and announced to make them animadversion if they did not obey their command. Along with this, Taliban started demolition of schools to curb females’ education and restricted them to their homes. “We can’t even go out to bring water for our daily use”, Shakeela added. She also told that she as well as her sisters and class fellows all were very distressed when they lost their schools.

In these circumstances, NCHD transitional schools are like a heaven for girls like Shakeela. The teachers deputed in these schools are trained in trauma counseling to help children keep aside the problems and worries they have faced and still facing.

Shakeela and her family praised NCHD’s initiatives both in the field of education and health, and demanded NCHD to provide education facility to girls like her when they go back to their home where all the schools especially girls’ schools have been demolished.