Rebuilding our children's dream

7.8 rector scale earthquake that shook Nepal on 25th April left Samikshya Dhungel, a Teach For Nepal Fellow in agony. Dhungel dedicated her one year teaching at a public school of Sangha Chowk, Sindhupalchowk and had just geared up for her second year when the disaster befell and took her 37 kids. Her grief has been hammered more with the sorrowful question of one of her kids "are we going to read this year miss?" "What about our school?" These questions haven't let her go anywhere with peacefulness even after weeks of disaster. Dhungel with a heavy heart shares "Kids are eager to learn and they want to move on from this fear of tremor but 70% of the school buildings of Sindhupalchowk have collapsed and the temporary alternatives hasn't been thought of yet about where children are going to be taught."

It's a high time we need to think the answer of Dhungel's child as he is just an example figure. There are thousands of kids who have the same question on their minds and there are thousands of teachers and guardians like Dhungel who are undergoing the same thought process. According to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Asia and the Pacific, UNOCHA more than 16,000 public and phalrivate schools - about half of the country's total - have been damaged. Though the extent of damage is still being assessed, the initial reports indicate huge proportion of school facilities have been totally destroyed or severely damaged due to the earthquake. In this context, children may not take going to school normally. But, it's very important to create the environment for them to go to school and make them feel school as a safe space to make them recover gradually from the terrible trauma.

We were thankful that the earthquake happened on Saturday when schools were closed as the National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET) in 1998-99 evaluated the risk to schools in Kathmandu Valley. It predicted that if an earthquake happened during school hours that 29,000 students, teachers and staffs would be killed and 43,000 seriously injured. Though we were lucky that the visible physical injury of children may be less than predicted, there can be nonetheless an emotional toll.

Psychiatrists say that the children are the most affected by the aftershocks and would need extra attention and medical care as the disaster can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Children exposed to multiple disasters experience particularly high rates of both depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms. One study of Sri Lankan children exposed to both an ongoing civil war and the 2004 tsunami found that 40 percent of children experienced PTSD

Regarding this alarm, the communities to which children return and the community services that families with children rely on play important roles in fostering children's recovery. Resuming usual routines of school and play activities was associated with more positive adjustment among the children exposed to traumatic war experiences in Sierra Leone as well as for children who experienced Hurricane Katrina.

Children make up half of Nepal's population. At least 940,000 children are affected by the earthquake and the number is increasing. It's vital that Nepal's children go back to school. Besides fulfilling the psychological needs, records too show that out-of-school children are at greater risk of violence, rape and recruitment into fighting, prostitution, and other life-threatening, often criminal, activities. Many will simply never return to the classroom. Many could fall into child labor, child marriage and sexual exploitation.

It's true that when families are compelled to survive open under the sky with no food and shelter, definitely, education wouldn't be their priority but along with the urgent needs, resuming the schools early should also be in the priorities. It's time to think about rebuilding our schools. Rebuilding takes time but till then at least let us find some alternative solutions where children could find a safe place for them to learn and enjoy their childhood. Let's be together for not letting the tremors shake our children's joy. Let's rebuild our schools. Rebuilding schools means rebuilding the children's dream.

Published on the website of A World at School, http://www.aworldatschool.org/global-youth-ambassadors/entry/after-nepal-earthquake-we-must-rebuild-childrens-dreams-1944

Published on Republica http://myrepublica.com/lifestyle/item/21372-my-voice-rebuilding-our-children-s-dream.html