KARACHI – With the sky still red and sun yet to rise above the horizon; birds singing and crows cawing; around a dozen boys and girls, carrying school bags on their shoulders, start their long walk on a narrow path passing through white sand dunes, surrounded by desert plants.
Wearing tattered slippers and clothes; weak physique and faces pale due to malnutrition; their eyes glitter with excitement on the journey of seven kilometres in the vast Achhro Thar (White Desert). For Imtiaz and his friends, it is a routine to walk the seven kilometres to reach their school.
Although his father has a camel and can take Imtiaz to his school, his father along with his camel has to fetch drinking water from another village for the family every morning, as the only well in their village has dried up. The long walks every morning and evening have become their fates, becoming actual pictures of the line, “And mile to go, before I sleep” of the poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” from English poet Robert Frost.
Eight-year-old Imtiaz, lives in Patahoo village, situated a kilometre away from the Indian border. A government school is located in his village but there have been no teachers there for the past several years. Imtiaz has three brothers and four sisters but just like other children in the village, they too are not studying due to the non-functional school.
Once his father went to Khipro for treatment of his injuries and observed that doctors are noble members of a society. Since then, he wants his sons to become doctors. They got a new hope when Pakistan Rangers established an English-medium school, which offered primary education along with uniform, books and also computer literacy to the students without any charge.
But there was a problem. The school was established in the Sadau village, around seven kilometres away from their village. Despite that, the hopeful father contacted the Rangers’ authorities and asked for Imtiaz’s admission. Not only Imtiaz, but around a dozen other children of Patahoo were admitted to the school. The Rangers’ school – named after philanthropist Mian Muhammad Yusuf – was opened in 2010 and around 120 students, majority of them girls, are enrolled at the school.
In this desert area, girls’ education and computer literacy could have never been imagined as most of the people have not even been to a major city in their lives. Students come to attend the school in Sadau from far-flung areas. Most of them have to walk to the school. The Rangers’ authorities planned to establish a hostel but not much funds were available. They are looking for social welfare organisations, philanthropists and other individuals to help them establish a hostel for these children from one of the most backward areas of Sindh.
Scattered over 4,805 square kilometres on the eastern side of Sindh along with the Indian border, Achhro Thar – a unique desert for its white sand dunes – is located in Khipro taluka of Sanghar district. The White Desert offers a variety of landscapes with vast scattered sand dunes that continuously change shapes in gusty winds. The area sprouts to life with desert plants and grass after torrential rains.
The population in this vast area is only 55,000. The Sindh Education Department’s records reveal that 1,100 primary, middle and secondary government schools exist in the taluka. The records confirm that 500 out of the total government schools are non-functional either due to unavailability of teachers or being illegally occupied by local influential, who have converted these buildings into their guesthouses, warehouses or keeping livestock.
Around 300 of such schools are in Achhro Thar alone. The records further state that two schools of Manakau village and one each in Sadau, Khasrau, Wikar, Rablau, Thooraho, Sahbitiyani, Mario, Kohi Samjh Wari, Kharki, Khathrau, Langhar, Patasho, Jaee jo Tarr, Lakhio, Athh, Raho and some other villages are not working for the last several years. The establishment of the Rangers’ school has brought new hopes for the people.
Many residents from far-flung areas take their children to Sadau and request their relatives to provide boarding to their children. In these conditions, the proposed hostel could be a great relief for the people in this backward district of Sindh.
