A Beautiful Mind

Children were very appreciative of the backpacks they received. Photo: Jackie Lee/Mercy Corps

On my last day in Mansehra, Jill, our community revitalization program officer, took me to do something fun.

We took off to visit a school out in the Trawra Village in Ughi Township of Mansehra District, a district even more neglected than others. It's essentially a lawless tribal area populated by ethnic Pashtuns from Afghanistan. I was told this was a haven for the criminals, with many reports of looting, stealing and violence. Most NGOs try to avoid working in this area, but Mercy Corps was reaching out to these people thought of as “outcasts."

Waiting for a delivery of school supplies before leaving the office, we counted several hundreds of school bags, boxes of papers and other kids' items. We pulled out some of the school bags to be distributed at Al Hamid Public School, a co-ed school where there were 148 boys and 41 girls in grades one through six. Each kid would receive a school bag as a present for Eid Day, a big Muslim holiday.

We left around 10:30 a.m., and as usual, I slept through most of the one-hour ride to the village because of motion sickness. As I opened my eyes, we had already arrived at Al Hamid Public School, and were welcomed by the Principal and the "honor," or land owner, of the school. Jill made a brief introduction of my visit, and they started talking about the needs in this community.

The land owner estimated that rebuilding their community Mosque would cost approximately 61,000 Rupees (about 8,600 HKD), and Jill promised to get an engineer to inspect the site and verify the estimate. HK$8,600, about $1,100 U.S., doesn't seem like much to restore a focal point for the community. After the short meeting, we quickly moved inside the school to see the damage done by the quake. Most of the walls in the complex collapsed, and many others had big cracks. This complex clearly was not suitable or safe for the kids. The children and teachers spent most of their time in the open before they received the two school tents from Mercy Corps.

Kids should be happy, laugh and learn through playing. The misfortune was that these kids have to face the fear of a collapsing school because of the quake; every time there is an aftershock, they scream and started running. That's why providing tents for classes is a priority for Mercy Corps.

As soon as Jill and I stepped into one of the tents, the children chirped happily with their adorable voices, “Good morning Madam.” My heart just melted seeing these angelic and innocent faces. Jill introduced me to the kids and asked if anyone knew where Hong Kong was. A boy stood up and answered with confidence, “China!” Several kids came forward to read passages from their Urdu textbook, English textbook, and even sang some sections of the Holy Koran. It was such an inspirational moment to have spent with these children. They are our future and we really need to cherish them, to get them back to their normal lives and unleash their potential.

When our distribution was over, the principal made his final announcement and the kids started off for their homes. Jill and I left shortly after, rushing back to the Mansehra office to arrange for a vehicle for me to get back to Islamabad and to Hong Kong.

Time to say goodbye to this welcoming city, the affectionate people and my amazing colleagues. Sha-gria (Thank you) to what this magnificent country had given me. Ku-da-vis (Goodbye)! I really loved to visit this country again, In-sha-la (Hopefully, by God’s will)!