trip to kashmir

Dear friends,

 I had intended to blog from Kashmir - but many of you will in know that this is harder than it may seem- especially since the are suffers from constant power cuts and Internet accessis not easy.

Myself Julia Armstrong, Kubra Asim and councillor Maroof travelled to Islamabad on Sunday the 17th arriving early on the Monday morning.

Julia , Kubra and I travelled to Azad Kashmir through the Scenic Tourist area of Pakistan Muree and then across the winding foothills of the Himalayas to Bagh an extremely bumpy journey given the state of some of the hill roads.

On the main road running into Bagh we first Caught site of the Sheffield College , perched on a hill side, gleaming white in the sunshine to be seen for miles around with the Sheffield College Bagh clearly visible in Black lettering across the top of the building,

although we had been travelling all night we could not wait to see the school as the last time we visited was in 2007 to lay the foundation stone- so although it has taken a long time to build- to us this was a remarkable transformation.

We travelled along the winding road up to the entrance of the school- to find a separatetoilet Block has been constructed and an amazing building, built in two halves in case of future earthquakes, with16 spacious classrooms on two levels with Class windows down to the floors on the corners making the room extremely light and giving them idilic views across the valley. Several of the rooms have been kitted out with desks. white boards, a computer suite a staff room and reception room.

We have to pinch ourselves to believe that we have been part of a small group who came here 7 years ago after the earthquake and that we have built this magnificent We are overwhelmed by it.

Above the school the local authority paid for a further road to be built in case we build twoseparate hostels for Boys and for girls. Over 100 Citrus trees which are still quite small have been planted across the site- donated to the school by the ministry for agriculture.

Already over 80 students have enrolled, and 6 teachers recruited, so that three classes are already running- many more are due to enrol and the school is arranging transport in particular to pick up girls from Bagh and the surrounding area.

The school will teach English to 0'level and A level standards, IT and hopefully Vocational studies.

If we can we will organise teacher training courses over the summer.

Originally the school had aimed to be a girls school- but we could not rebuild on the original site because it was inside the red line an area still prone to seismic activity. Despite this the girls school has been rebuilt-- inside the red line-perhaps because flat land is a premium and so the management committee of KERF in conjunction with local people have agreed to open the school up to girls and boys and for it to be used by the community at the weekends and in the evenings.

When we arrived there is still lots of activity going on in preparation for the next dayspenning including tidying up the road.

The next day is the penning ceremony- and what a day it is – we have the prime minister of Azad Kashmir – Ch. Abdul Majeed, our good friend Sardar Qammar – Uz -Zaman khan who was formerly the health Minister but is now the Health Minister and the new Education minister Mr Waheed , plus all the local officials, the press and most importantly 100's of local people including 100's of women, which is not usual. In total around 600 people have arrived- to listen to speeches and performances by local children, to draw the curtain on the opening plaque and to hear details of how the school has come into existence.

The prime Minister takes the opportunity to announce more school building in the area – describing our college as a path maker for the area in terms of education, that they will give additional funding to the school , that he will personally participate in the school and complete some of the additional items which are required.

This is a transcript of my speech.

It is a great pleasure to be back in your beautiful Country and amongst a people whose determination in the face of adversity- won our hearts.

We came here in December 2005- a delegation of 9 people- half originally from Kashmir the other what you call Gories.

We came for two reasons;

• We new that Kashmir was and remains the site of one of the biggest and most brutal occupations where arrests, torture and disappearances are a regular feature- and yet it is an occupation rarely mentioned. We wanted to raise the profile of Kashmir in the same way that the Palestinian solidarity campaign has raise the profile of the Palestinians. So even before the earthquake we new that the people of Kashmir had suffered for too long.
• 

  
  Then the Massive earthquake hit. We wanted to help- not least because in Britain at the time the only images of Muslims the west were interested in were images that demonised all Muslims as terrorists to justify their so called war on terror. We were angry that our government was prepared to spend millions on war in other peoples lands but when it came to people like the victims of the earthquake – their cries went unheard.
  We wanted to put right a wrong- to raise the profile- so we
• Collected on the street as Respect for Kashmir
• We sent a delegation out- with as much aid as we could.
  We were shocked- it was like a war zone- thousands of people in tents which were not weather proof.

However despite this the one thing which struck us was the determination of people to get education.

I saw young people travelling across a giant ravine above the Jhelum valley on a metal wire with a basket below it- something i would never do- because they wanted to get educated.

I saw young people being taught outside in the freezing cold sitting on rocks because their schools had been destroyed – because they wanted an education.

We came to bagh and met Qammar- Uz- Zaman the Lion Of bagh who showed us the site of the girls school destroyed by the earthquake, who told us there will be no rehabilitationwithout education.

This is the final result- it has been a long time coming- but i think it is magnificent and a real asset to the people of Bagh.

This was the product of contributions of 100's of ordinary people- we are not a giant NGO- we are just a group of 9 people who came together set up a project headed by Abdul Assim a\end wanted to see it through.

To build this we walked;

Ben Nevis the highest peak in Britain

We did numerous sponsored walks

We held charity meals

sold shawls

Got people to commemorate rooms to their loved ones.

I want to thank the people of Sheffield i believ this is a fantatic symbol of solidarity and respect from the people of Sheffield to the people of Kashmir

It is a gift to you- we hope you will use it well. We want to hand it over to to the people of the area.

Finally – this school is a tribute to the 200 young women who lost their lives on that terrible day in October 2005- and all the others who died.

The people of Kashmir deserve and demand a descent education- we hope this will help.

for more information kashmir-relief.org