The cracked and disintegrating road is the first indication of the difficult journey ahead to earthquake-devastated Ghanool in the Mansehra District.

A wooden suspension bridge, or what’s left of it, is the only means of crossing a river to the village.

The remains of a government school where 172 children died during the Oct. 8 earthquake.

School bags and textbooks lie in the rubble of a destroyed school.

Only a month ago, children in Ghanool were learning under trees, their classrooms destroyed in the quake. Now children study in tents, safe from the harsh sun and monsoon rains, thanks to the IRC, which worked with UNICEF to distribute ”school in a box” kits containing tents, stationery, school bags and notebooks.

The students from the girls’ section welcome visitors to their new tent classroom where they study on brightly colored mats surrounded by educational posters and charts.

Through its Healing Classrooms initiative, the IRC supports 100 government schools in Mansehra District, all of which were severely impacted by the earthquake. Boys and girls are encouraged to come back to school, now that they have notebooks and teachers trained in the latest classroom techniques.

More support is still required. “I am very happy we are learning once again, but I miss my school a lot,” says one student. “It was nicer studying in a building and sitting on chairs with tables, rather than tents.”

Before the earthquake, every class had its own room in the school building, but now students share space. Here we see the shoes of children in grades three through five piled in front of the tent where all lessons are conducted.

The reconstruction of schools in villages like Ghanool will be decided by the Pakistan government. In the meantime, the IRC’s programs promote child-centered learning in classrooms while encouraging extracurricular activities like games, art and crafts and singing. The idea is to make learning fun and to get children to participate fully in school life.

Naida Begum is one of the 250 government teachers who will receive training from the IRC in child-centered learning techniques and methodologies. She is excited about the chance to improve her own education as well as that of her pupils.

The message on a sign made by students is full of hope: Life has managed to smile once again. Once again life proves itself to be a joy.

Thanks to the IRC, children in Ghanool have a promising start on their journey to build a future for themselves.

(July 2006) The devastating earthquake of October 2005 took the lives of more than 18,000* students and over 850 teachers in northern Pakistan and Kashmir. The disaster damaged or destroyed 95 percent of all school buildings, leaving the surviving children without a place to learn, without essential materials like books, chairs and desks, and without the confidence to go back to a place associated with tragedy.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has worked closely with UNICEF to provide 100 government schools in the Mansehra District in northern Pakistan with tents, blackboards, notebooks, stationery and recreational materials to get them operational once again.

Now that children are back in the classroom, albeit a tarpaulin one, the IRC is training more than 800 teachers (including 250 in Mansehra) in the latest methodologies and child-centered approaches. The idea is to create healing classrooms where children can learn, play and build a future for themselves.

Laila Khan of the IRC in Pakistan visited the village of Ghanool, Mansehra District, where the local government school was destroyed in the Oct. 8 earthquake. Some 210 children currently take their lessons in tents supplied by the IRC—children struggling to put the past behind them and move forward with hope and determination.

* All figures taken from a November 2005 report by the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank.