Saturday continued
Following breakfast we go to the press club, where Julia and the Lord Mayor once again urged the press to help us to secure the land for our college. The press club is in a tin hut. Julia told me that she had noticed on our first visit back in December 2005 that it had been destroyed in the earthquake. Julia is a member of the National Union of Journalists and union convenorat The Star and agrees to use her union contacts to help raise money to rebuild it. This is important for this place is not just place to socialise, it is their workplace and it gets boiling in the searing Kashmiri summer.
The journalists are fantastic, the coverage they have given us in the press is quiteamazing. Julia was embarassed to find herself on the front page of some newspapers here!
Our next event is the presenatation of the certificates to all the girls and boys who were taught by the12 teachers who gave up their own time and paid their own air fares to teach during the summer holiday. They will be pleased to know that many people were asking after them and singing their praises. There must be over 200 women and 100 men in the room and Jackie Drayton presents a certificate and speaks to every one. Again, the women tell me how important this project has been and how they need more courses.
Next we visit the site of the girls' college. I have not seen this since December 2005 but we were disappointed that the new principal does not turn up to meet us. We still can't quite work out what is going on.
Because the people of the area were so overwhelmed that the Lord Mayor of Sheffield was visiting, which hasbeen key to our project, many groups including the Bar Council put on receptions for her.
Easter Sunday
Today we visit Ravli school. This involves driving across a wooden suspension bridge, an interesting experience to say the least. This was what I describe as another of my Indiana Jones moments! Ravli, like all the schools, is high in the mountains and the road is extremely dangerous.Once again the scenery is breathtaking but it is so hot, unlike last time we visited this area. The sun is sweltering.
We are overwhelmed by the reception at Ravli school ,so overwhelmed that allof us are in tears, including the Lord Mayor, Kubra, Julia, myself and even Shahbaz. One of the young women sang a beautiful song called Naat which is a song in praise of the Prophet Mohammed, PBUH. Such a beautiful vouice, Julia is talking about using her singing as the soundtrack to the film she is making. Not only is Julia speaking at meetings, she is also filming everything that is going on.
This is the most impressive of all our schools. Here they talk about how they sell the clothes to make money. You can see the potential for this providing employment anda source of income for many of these women who have lost their husbands. Shahbaz agrees to buy all the clothes on display and take them back to England to sell them. We interview a young woman who praises the schools and tells us that if they didn't have the schools they would be isolated, that theschool privdes them with skills and work to support their families. She also talks about the relatives and loved ones she has lost and her eyes well up with tears. We are crying again as we are writing this.
Madame Kubra, as she is called, is becoming a professional public speaker, speaking in English, Urdu and Pari and Professor Abdul Assim is known everywhere we go.
Next stop is up snother mountain to Panyali. This school is in a Nissan hut-shaped tent. The women seem less confident and more timid but they come to life when they discuss their work. This is the home village of our development worker Shoaib, to whom we must give credit for developing the schools. Most of his family moved to Bagh after their house collapsed in the earthquake.
Our next mission is to see the two pieces of land which we have been offered by the local goverment as an alternative to the old college site. We still are not clear on how long it will take to get clearance to build on the old site, or the one that will be included in a redrawn city maasterplan, and we need to start to rebuild.
We visit twosites and the best one we could only consider if the government agree to build an access road and supply water and electricity. Initially we are a bit disappointed with the land offered, not because of its location but because of the shale bank. But we are told it is possible to turn the rock into aggregate that forms the foundations and it would even save us 20,000 pounds. After much discussion we decide to accept. This annoucment will be madeat ther recepiton organised by Qamar Ul-Zaman, the minister for education and the leader of the opposition, the PPP. He is our good friend who helped us make our first visit to the earthquake zone in December 2005 a great success.
