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Press Release

Children return to school in Kutch

UNICEF's largest emergency assistance to India allocated to Gujarat earthquake-affected children

Gandhinagar / New Delhi, 14 June 2001: Less than 5 months after a devastating earthquake, more than 400,000 children are going back to school for the first time in Gujarat today. As the result of an unprecedented joint effort by the Government of Gujarat and UNICEF, over 2,000 schools, fully equipped, have re-opened.

“Education has been a priority for UNICEF because our experience shows that it is one of the best tools to help children overcome their trauma and find a sense of normalcy. In Gujarat, it took only 15$ (700 Rs) to bring back a child to school. UNICEF has invested nearly 7 million dollars in this effort,” said Maria Calivis, UNICEF representative in India during her visit to Bhuj and surrounding villages on 14th June. The total commitment of UNICEF to the relief and rehabilitation of Gujarat has reached 21 million dollars, UNICEF’s largest emergency assistance to India.

The re-opening of schools was marked by celebration all over the state as Shala Pravesh Utsav --- School Enrollment Festival. Anandiben Patel, Education Minister Gujarat, jointly flagged off a children’s rally along with Maria Calivis, UNICEF’s Representative in India at Nagor village.

Over the past four months UNICEF has distributed nearly 8,000 tents, 32,000 tables and chairs for the teachers , 8000 blackboards, hundreds of thousands of school bags, pencils, crayons, thousands of teaching materials, family kits for the teachers and recreation kits. In addition, UNICEF has supported the training of over 600 teachers in counseling skills to provide psycho social support to traumatised children.

The State Minister of Education Anandiben Patel outlined a programme of reconstruction and rehabilitation which will enable the schools to get back into permanent buildings soonest. Talking to newspersons about the reopening of schools she said “The schools had been closed for a variety of reasons after considerable thought and discussion. It has given us the time to assess the total primary education scene in the state. During these four months we have refurbished all the schools with the necessary teaching and learning materials in partnership with UNICEF. We are determined to see that the permanent buildings for the schools should be up within a year’s time”.

Appreciating UNICEF for its support and partnership Anandiben said, “UNICEF is building 189 prefab structure for the schools which will provide 750 classrooms. The government has plans to cover the rest of the structures after repairing and rebuilding them. We hope to achieve this within a year.”

UNICEF’s partnership with the Government of Gujarat is part of an ongoing programme of cooperation. Even as UNICEF was helping the state prepare for the drought, the earthquake struck Gujarat. UNICEF in the last five months has delivered aid and assistance worth US $ 16 million.

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