Schools opening their gates amid the destruction and danger
Published: Mar 16, 2015 Reading time: 2 minutes
“Do you want to go to the roof?” the director of school asks me. “Sure,” I respond and we are climbing up the ladder. A view opens up over the whole village, half of which has been flattened by fighting and explosions caused by IS. But the view to the countryside from the roof looks peaceful: rolling green fields and curves of the mountains on the horizon. “Dayish” says the director and points towards the green field dotted with watch towers in the distance. Dayish is the name they use for IS here in Kurdistan. Not even 15km in the distance, the fighters of the Islamic State still hold their positions. Only four month ago fighting took place even in this village.
We are on assessment of schools in Zumar sub-district, Ninewa. The area has been overtaken by IS last August. The fighting and violence resulted in majority of the people to abandon their homes and run for their lives. Kurdish Peshmerga recently liberated the area and people could come back home. But the fighting took its toll: destroyed infrastructure, looted houses, mined fields. “When we came back to the village, we found 16 jerry cans full of explosives,” says director of school in Gerver, couple of kilometres further, “and it is only a couple of weeks two people from the village were killed by unexploded ordnance they found in the fields,” the director recounts horrible incidents, that are rarely an exception in this area.
Most of the villages have no electricity and no running water. The pipes as well as the electrical wires have been destroyed and looted. The schools we visit are in a very poor state, some destroyed by shelling, some completely flattened by bombs. Many of them managed to open, but operate in very provisional conditions. Imagine a school toilet serving 300 without running water; broken windows and burned out rooms and you will get the picture.
But the motivation of the teachers not to let their students without education is fierce. Some of them didn’t get their salary for multiple months, because the local government is only slowly resuming its functioning. But they are in the schools, ready to stand in front of crowded classrooms. “We need electricity and water, we have wells, but cannot get enough water most of the days” says a female teacher in school in Maseka. “We have so many students, that we had to start teaching some classes in nearby house, even though its half destroyed", she said and points out to holes in walls and ceiling destroyed by leaking water.
During the assessment People in need visited schools providing education to nearly 4000 students in these newly liberated areas and now is planning to support quick recovery and provide opportunity for the students to continue their education in dignified and safe conditions and help to rebuild their communities after the trauma of violent conflict.