Kids resolute despite schools ruined by floods in Swat, Pakistan

Diligently practicing alphabets with her tiny finger on damp sand at the ruins of her beloved school, little girl Palwashe still determined to seek education despite that the recent floods had washed away the blackboard along with other infrastructure.

Palwashe, 9, and other tiny tots of her class still regularly come to the site of school at the hill station Kalam where only a few bricks and debris of a collapsed roof were left to welcome them, as the recent floods have destroyed most of the infrastructures in the worst hit tourist destination Swat, 130 kilometers northwest of Pakistani capital Islamabad.

"Our school has been destroyed by flood. We miss it," said Jabbar, 12, emphasizing the determination, "We want to study."

Militants have been bombing the schools in Swat valley, and now heavy rains and floods have added to the destruction of the infrastructure. During the past few days some 80 schools were damaged, 20 of which were completely washed away by floods that had also killed over 1,000 people in the valley.

Most of the students in the troubled areas of northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have been suffering with various degrees of post trauma shock due to militancy and have further been traumatized with the worries about the future of their education. The Taliban have bombed 397 schools so far. At least 174 of them were completely razed including 120 girls schools, according to official reports.

It had affected 56,117 students with over half of them being female in Swat and other adjoining areas, where extremist militants reign terror, said an official of the local education department.


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