DOHA: Thousands of children are enjoying benefits of Reach out to Asia’s (Rota) three-year Infrastructure Support and Professional Improvement to Revitalise Education (INSPIRE) project in the Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan.
Working with CARE, Rota has supported the project which provides quality education for children and youth in 42 schools in the Swat Valley, including increasing children’s leadership skills and social cohesion through extracurricular sport activities.
Pakistan has faced humanitarian crises: The 2005 earthquake in North West Frontier Province, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, internal displacement of populations in the aftermath of military operations in Swat and other tribal regions against the Taliban in 2009, and in 2010, intense floods that devastated the region.
Rota reacted almost immediately to the situation in Swat by increasing access to educational facilities, improving the quality of education and providing psychosocial support.
Rota committed to building two secondary schools, rehabilitating 40 primary, middle and secondary schools, supplying educational materials to 42 schools, implementing a training programme for 280 teachers and operating youth development initiatives through sports.
“The project has been very successful and we are proud to have provided educational facilities for children of the province. Children’s right to education must be a priority, especially in communities where education is key to the future,” said Essa Al Mannai, Executive Director, Rota.“Rota understands that students need a protective learning environment with psychosocial support to focus on their studies for long-term benefits for themselves and the community. Schools in Swat are a testament of Rota’s strategy to provide access to education and improve the quality of schooling for its beneficiaries.”
A key element of the project was to focus on increasing social cohesion through youth development, using sports activities.
Rota, along with assistance from international donors, reconstructed a few sports grounds that have been made partially functional. Rota’s aim to restore sport activities was done to bring back the youth, who were attracted by the insurgent’s propaganda, and resume educational and recreational activities for a better future.
Waleed Rauf, Country Director, CARE Pakistan, said, “The Rota project has played a vital role in helping communities rebuild and the people of Swat recover after the devastation and trauma brought on by recent flooding and militancy. It has increased the local communities’ and the government’s commitment to support girls’ education and realise that educating girls is critical to having prosperous and peaceful communities in the future.”
A total of 296 sport and recreational events were held in 42 schools. In 24 girls’ schools, sport and recreational events like cricket, sack race, badminton, athletics, drawing competitions, singing, and speeches were arranged.
The Peninsula
