A handover ceremony was held at the Government Girls Primary School Hazarkhawani in Peshawar to mark the completion of extensive retrofitting works under the Disaster Resilient School Infrastructure Project. This initiative represents a significant step forward in strengthening education infrastructure and ensuring safer learning environments for children in the disaster-prone Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) region.<\/p>\n
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa frequently faces natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, which have exposed the structural weaknesses of many schools and disrupted students’ education. To address these challenges, the Disaster Resilient School Infrastructure Project was launched with support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and was jointly implemented by UN-Habitat and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the KP Elementary and Secondary Education Department. The project focused on retrofitting 150 schools across eight districts, including Buner, Malakand, Peshawar, Swat, Lower Chitral, Upper Chitral, Lower Dir, and Upper Dir. These upgrades are expected to benefit more than 31,000 students, including 13,000 girls, and have also resulted in the rehabilitation of 300 latrines and water points.<\/p>\n
The ceremony was attended by representatives from the KP government, JICA, UN-Habitat, UNDP, as well as local community members, teachers, parents, and students. JICA Programme Manager Abrar Khan highlighted Japan\u2019s continued commitment to building resilience in KP, noting the importance of the project\u2019s structural improvements and enhanced water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities.<\/p>\n
UN-Habitat led the technical design and oversight of the retrofitting works, which included structural assessments, cost estimations, site planning, construction supervision, capacity-building, training, and stakeholder coordination, while preserving the schools\u2019 traditional stone masonry. Hamid Mumtaz, Deputy Programme Manager for UN-Habitat, emphasized that the retrofitted schools showcased a collaborative effort toward strengthening resilience and safe learning in line with international disaster risk reduction frameworks.<\/p>\n
Hisashi Izumi, Programme Manager for UNDP\u2019s Flood Recovery Programme, noted that rehabilitating schools goes beyond simply repairing buildings; it is about restoring hope and opportunity for children, particularly girls, and investing in the future of entire communities.<\/p>\n
Fazal e Ilahi, a Member of the Provincial Assembly, expressed the provincial government\u2019s gratitude for the support received from JICA, UNDP, and UN-Habitat, describing the school as a model of resilience that underscores the importance of continual investment in safe, climate-resilient education infrastructure in vulnerable areas.<\/p>\n
Dr. Ruksana Farooq, Senior Planning Officer for the KP government, acknowledged the significant progress made through these efforts but pointed out that much remains to be done, emphasizing the need for broader investment and support to further expand resilient education infrastructure. She reaffirmed that ensuring disaster-resilient, uninterrupted education is crucial to achieving inclusive, equitable, and safe quality education for all children in KP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A handover ceremony was held at the Government Girls Primary School Hazarkhawani in Peshawar to mark the completion of extensive retrofitting works under the Disaster Resilient School Infrastructure Project. This initiative represents a significant step forward in strengthening education infrastructure and ensuring safer learning environments for children in the disaster-prone Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) region. Khyber …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10299,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10297\/revisions\/10299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}