The earthquake on October 8 last year changed the face of Northern Pakistan forever. Official death toll reached 87,000 leaving 3.3 million people homeless.
In an area of Pakistan where the literacy rate is positively skewed, compared to the rest of the country, this meant over 200,000 children and roughly 5000 teachers sitting under brick and concrete structures at the time of the quake. The entire school infrastructure in north Pakistan came down as a result of the disaster and not even a single school was left functional. Children made up a significant number of the total casualties.
Fast forward a few months and we've seen relief agencies from all over the world donating their time, effort and money to rescue people in the affected areas and provide for their basic shelter, food and water. P&G Pakistan, with help from global counterparts, contributed over $1 million in cash and kind for immediate relief of the earthquake victims.
As a socially responsible corporate citizen of Pakistan, P&G feels the need to once again rise to the occasion and give to the affected people what they need best at this time. Partnering with a local NGO, named READ Foundation, P&G Pakistan is building seismic compliant schools in areas of north Pakistan that were affected by the earthquake. A 38 classroom school for boys, girls and young kids aged 4-16 in main Muzaffarabad city, capital of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), marks the beginning of this project.
READ Foundation is the largest indigenous non-governmental organisation active in the quake ravaged areas of AJK. The organization has a 12 year history and now over 55,000 children are bring educated in READ schools - including with about 2,500 teachers earning their monthly wage there. The mammoth network of 323 schools spread over all the 7 districts of AJK is fully owned and operated by the READ Foundation - a not for profit organization with its head office in Islamabad. READ Foundation supports 5,850 orphans for all their education expenses.
Working in partnership with parents, communities, and local and international philanthropic organisations, READ Foundation access to high-quality, cost-effective, and sustainable quality education programs with significant gender parity. Quality education is supported through teacher training, improvement of the buildings and facilities, and development of locally relevant and appropriate materials.
The October 2005 deadly earthquake destroyed 138 READ Foundation Schools in Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Poonch districts of AJK, affecting more than 22,000 children. READ Foundation's strong presence in the disaster-hit areas for past eleven years enabled it to respond quickly and effectively to the needs of quake-afflicted children.
In fact, READ Foundation had taken the lead by restarting these schools within two weeks after earthquake. Over 23,000 children are already learning again in READ schools. It is expected that enrolment in this school shall increase by 12 percent to 15 percent during educational year 2006-2007 once classes have been shifted to a safe classroom environment.
P&G Pakistan signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding with READ Foundation on the 19th of April, 2006. The two organisations have agreed to work together towards building sustainable seismic compliant schools in the earthquake area under a project titled, 'Safe Schooling for Building Future'. P&G will donate cash and provide support to the NGO for the building some its schools.
The schools will be run by existing READ staff and they will take care of running the schools and fund its ongoing expenses. Total money pledged for this project by Procter & Gamble so far is north of $160,000 (approximately Rs 1 crore).
Read Foundation lost 33% of their schools to the earthquake. Rebuilding all of them is a gigantic project and will take a few years and tons of effort to accomplish. P&G Pakistan and Read have laid the foundation stone for this project and would like to encourage other donors to contribute towards this cause whole-heartedly.
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