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Islamabad/Brussels, 8 May 2013 – The European Union has provided € 300,000 from its Nobel Peace Prize money to UNICEF to support its educational activities for children affected by a lack of security in parts of northwestern Pakistan. The agreement was formalised today in Islamabad, between Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union to Pakistan and Dan Rohrmann, UNICEF Representative in Pakistan.

By Raheela Chaudhry

© UNICEF Pakistan/2012/Chaudhry
Laxmi, 10, cares for her younger brother while their parents are working in Naukot, Pakistan.

NAUKOT, Pakistan, 15 March 2012 – On a lonely roadside in Naukot, Sindh Province, is a small collection of shabby tents. Many of them are makeshift constructions, plastic sheets covered in clothing, barely large enough to accommodate an adult standing upright. But for 10-year-old Laxmi and her family, one of these tents is home.

Last summer, torrential monsoon rains struck this region of Pakistan, destroying the small hut where her family lived. They were left with just a few personal belongings and the rope beds that constitute their only furniture. Since that day, Laxmi, her parents and four siblings have lived in this tent.

By A. Sami Malik

MUZAFFARGARH, Punjab, 2 March 2012 – The entire community of the small village of Peer Dargai Shah, in the Muzaffargarh District of southern Punjab, turned up to celebrate a special occasion. The new primary school, built with funding from UNICEF and the Government of the Netherlands, was being inaugurated.

Dressed in their best attire, people gathered in and around the freshly painted school. For students of the Peer Dargai Shah Primary School, it was a matter of special pride. Carrying their school bags, the children ran to make sure they arrived at the school before the guests.

© UNICEF/Pakistan/2011/Gulnaz Jabeen Khan
MehreenYaqoob, ParveenMajeed and friends –Learning with joy at ECE Class in Government Girls Primary School Qadirabad, Tehsil Jampur, District Rajanpur

News note

ISLAMABAD, 4 January 2012 – UNICEF and partners today welcomed the opening of 35 new schools in Muzaffargah, Rajanpur and Rahimyar Khan in Southern Punjab, three districts hit by the 2010 monsoon floods. These schools have been constructed by the children’s agency at locations where schools were damaged or completely destroyed by the floods that devastated Pakistan from July to September 2010.

Pakistan flood crisis, one year on

Children and families continue to cope – and rebuild their lives – a year after devastating monsoon floods struck Pakistan. This is one in a series of stories on their situation, one year on.

By A. Sami Malik

PUNJAB, Pakistan, 3 August 2011 – “Before the floods, this village had a one-room Masjid [mosque] school. Most of the children sat under a tree. We now have this beautiful school, and the children love it,” says Mukhtar Ahmad, Headmaster of the Government Primary School in Mullanwala village, located in the Muzaffargarh District of Pakistan’s Punjab Province.

Pakistan flood crisis, one year on

Children and families continue to cope – and rebuild their lives – a year after devastating monsoon floods struck Pakistan. This is one in a series of stories on their situation, one year on.

By Adnan Raja

SINDH PROVINCE, Pakistan, 28 July 2011 – Ejaz Najum, 12, was living in Karampur, in the northern part of Sindh Province, when floods ravaged his entire village and surrounding communities in late July 2010. Across Pakistan, the massive floods inundated farms, schools and health facilities, and disrupted basic social services, from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea.