Even as a year has passed since the floods in Sindh, thousands of children are still missing out on their schooling and social activities while being confined to the camp life at the IDP tent villages in Karachi and other parts of the province, discloses a field survey conducted by the children rights organisation, the Roshni Helpline.
The assessment carried out at the internally displaced persons (IDP) tent villages in Gulshan-e-Benazir, Keamari Town, near Musharraf Colony; Razzakabad in Bin Qasim Town and Super Highway, Gadap Town, reflects upon the hopelessness and a sense of anxiety among children about the future of their education, schools and social surroundings in their hometowns.
The families, which had voluntarily opted to return to their broken homes in different parts of the province, are also yet to be rehabilitated.
Their children are still out of schools while their socioeconomic circumstances are same as were at the time of the floods.
“It is too difficult for us to come to terms with the destruction of our properties and belongings. It is hard enough to survive without help from any quarter,” Sakina Samejo told the Roshni Helpline surveyors.
Samejo said that she and her family members had returned to their broken home in Jacobabad on the government’s assurance that they would be helped in returning to their normal lives.
“But there is no help and life for us. There is no life for our children. All houses and schools are completely destroyed. Hardly anyone lives there. There is hardly any activity for our children,” she said.
“Here at least we get cooked food and ration and our children can play or wander around for a while. The only thing they are missing is their schooling and education.”
The IDP families are settled at all three camps from Jacobabad, Shahdadkot, Naushero Feroz and other areas of Sindh. A few of them have even arrived from Rahim Yar Khan, Muzzafargarh and other southern parts of Punjab.
In the beginning, some non-governmental organisations including Roshni Helpline, Potohar Organisation for Development Advocacy from Islamabad and others provided children at the camps with non-formal education. But after the closure of these projects, there is no continuity of educational or recreational activity for the flood-affected children.
“The flood-affected children have gone through a phase of trauma and grief owing to the loss and destruction they witnessed during the floods, and keeping them engaged in educational and recreational activities is important to help them rehabilitate mentally,” said Muhammad Ali, president of the Roshni Helpline.
“We managed to run the project for about a year, but as NGOs run funded-projects, they can sustain them only till their stipulated time limits. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure continuation of educational and social activities of the flood-affected children in the longer run.”
