After the cyclone — Shahana’s story from Bangladesh
Shahana's school was destroyed by the cyclone in southern Bangladesh. She was meant to be sitting her exams this week, but now the school is destroyed, the teachers have left, all student records have been lost.
Monday 3 December 2007
In Bokultola, nowhere has been left untouched by the cyclone, which ripped through the village on the night of the 15 November. To reach Shahana's school, we took motorbikes along roads devastated by the tidal surge, and resorted to walking when the bikes could go no further. We crossed a river by climbing across the remains of a broken bridge and a haphazard assault course of bamboo sticks and ropes.
11-year-old Shahana was one of the first children we met when we reached the school. She was wandering around the muddy remains of the school field, holding a tattered, damp book in her hand. She was with her sister and half a dozen other children sifting through mounds of destroyed books left out in the sun to dry, in among the goats that were nibbling on rubbish and leaves from the fallen trees.
The school building behind them was empty, filled only with mud and debris from the storm. The few chairs and benches still intact sat stubbornly upright in the muddy field, surrounded by channels of murky water, almost challenging the children to sit on them.
Shahana was holding the class five textbook she had finished studying when the cyclone struck.
She was meant to be sitting her exams this week in order to get into class six, but now the school is destroyed, the teachers have left, all student records have been lost, and only a few forlorn books can be salvaged from the mush of papers blowing about in the wind. She explained that she had started reading it all over again so that she wouldn't forget anything - she studies at home now that there is no possibility of coming to school.
The house where she lives with her sister, uncle, auntie and grandparents was damaged, but fortunately was not totally destroyed by the cyclone. Her own parents live up in the north-east of Bangladesh with her other sisters and brothers. Shahana stayed in Bokultola with her sister when her parents moved away, because the two girls wanted to finish their studies here. Now that there is no school, their future is very uncertain. Shahana desperately hopes that her school will be re-opened soon.
Thousands of schools have been devastated by the cyclone in southern Bangladesh, leaving hundreds of thousands of children like Shahana in a state of limbo.
It is crucial to re-establish the rhythm of schooling immediately in the aftermath of a disaster. This can help channel children's distress from what they have witnessed into constructive learning. It can also remove them from harm and abuse such as trafficking or domestic violence. In Bangladesh, whole villages are sheltering in tiny temporary shacks on the roadsides while they try to rebuild their devastated homes. With families relying only on handouts for scarce food and water, children often become the brunt of pent-up frustration, or can be sold into child labour or sex work by the family to survive.
Education is not only every child's right, it is also a means to protect children from abuse, neglect, violence and harm.
Children in Bangladesh need urgent help after surviving the worst cyclone to hit the country in the past decade. Make an online donation to support Save the Children's work.
