Learning Through It All

Rajanpur District, Punjab: For years, the monsoon season meant disruption for 12-year-old Razish. Living along the Indus River in Rajanpur District, she watched floodwaters rise, cutting off the path to her school and forcing long breaks from learning.

This meant waiting for life to become normal again, waiting to play and waiting to learn again.

“When the floods came before, we had to stop going to school,” she says. “We would sit at home and wait for the water to go away.”

In 2025, rainfall across parts of the Indus Basin rose to 36 per cent above normal levels, increasing the risk of flooding across Punjab and Sindh. When heavy rains threatened her community once again, Razish feared history would repeat itself.

“I thought it would be the same,” she recalls. “Staying at home and forgetting what I learned.”

But this time was different, her community was ready and her school was protected.

As her community faced widespread disruptions and floodwater threatened schools, members of the School Management Committee had already moved desks, books, and learning materials to safer ground. Temporary learning spaces were prepared in advance, ensuring that classes could continue even as the water spread across surrounding fields.

This readiness was possible because of the Anticipatory Action (AA) programme which leveraged flood forecasting and pre-emptive planning to safeguard education and ensure continuity of learning in high-risk districts. Acting in the critical window between a flood warning and the actual arrival of floodwaters played a key role in reducing learning disruption.

Razish also received an education kit with a school bag, notebooks, pencils and art supplies, small items with big impact to help keep her learning on track. 

Anticipatory Action supported by Education Cannot Wait and implemented by the Punjab Education Department, UNICEF and partner Save the Children, are helping communities shift from reactive responses to proactive preparedness to protect education in the face of climate shocks. In Punjab alone, this support enabled 62 schools to be safely evacuated ahead of flooding, protecting learning materials for more than 12,500 students, including over 7,000 girls. Temporary Learning Spaces were established in 37 schools, allowing more than 6,000 children to continue learning without losing a single day.

Community engagement and empowerment are at the heart of protecting education in emergencies. Behind these efforts were teachers, families, and community members working together to identify risks, plan and prepare schools before disaster struck.

Anticipatory Action shows how early planning and community action can help children stay safe, supported, and learning, even in the face of climate shocks. These efforts protected education in emergencies of nearly 47,000 children in the flood-prone districts of Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur in Punjab, and Sukkur, Larkana, Dadu, and Shaheed Benazirabad in Sindh in 2025.

“I want to become a doctor,” Razish says with a shy smile. When she is not studying, she enjoys playing and spending time knitting and stitching. “It makes me happy,” she adds.

For Razish and thousands of children like her, early action means that even though the floods may still come, she won’t have to worry about her education being put on hold.

Note: The story was written by Save the Children, with information and data provided by the implementing partner, Sanj Preet Organization.