In my opinion, child rights mean that the each and every child hasthe right to quality education, health, protection, protection againsexual abuse, etc. It is the aim and responsibility ofall the child rights organizations to ensure the provision of these rights for every child, regardless of their caste, colour or creed.

The United Nations has also passed a Convention on the Rights of the Child – a very comprehensive document which provides detailed insight into child rights. To achieve the goals and targets outlined in the convention, the UN reaches out to organizations worldwide and provides them withthe funding to undertake initiatives for the promotion of child rights. These organizations have been working for child rights in one region or the other for hundreds of yearsnow. Yet we must stop here and question ourselves: Have their efforts paid off? Despite all the effort, why are children still being abused and killed, deprived of their childhood and education, malnourished and sold into human trafficking? Who is at fault here? Who should we hold accountable for the failure to provide our children with a safe and secure future? Could it be possible that these organizations are working to serve some vested interests? I believe that if these organizations had been working for the cause of child rights with utmost sincerity, then this world would have become a much better place for our children by now.

Why am I raising these questions? Because every day I see children in my own country who are even denied basic human rights. Be it health, education or even protection – the children are the most disadvantaged. Their plight shakes me to the core! With deep grief, I must say that it feels as if all child rights organizations have turned a blind eye to the deplorable condition of children across the globe.

What about the child who picks garbage all day to make enough money to feed himself! Please ask yourself, does he deserve that?

What about the child who polishes shoes all day to make enough money to feed his entire family! Please ask yourself again, does he deserve that?

While teaching in a class once, I couldn’t help but notice a child who would just not look up. Upon inquiring, I found out that he was embarrassed about having to wear a torn and worn out uniform to school every day. Parents could not afford to buy him a new uniform. As I went to buy him a new uniform that day, I couldn’t help but think about what must that child go through every day. Putting on a torn uniform every day to school must break his spirit.

These are just every day examples of what our children go through on a daily basis. But what about the children we lost to APS Peshawar Attack? Or the children from Kasur incident? How can we allow such heinous crimes to take place against our children? By failing to provide them a secure present, are we preparing them for the future? I guess, not!

I request the State and these child rights organizations to understand and undertake their full responsibility towards our children! All it will take is a little bit of sincerity and dedication, and I ask you what cannot be fixed then?
Let’s take today to stand up for child rights!
Let’s secure our future along with our children!

By: Kakar Hayat Hamandzai
A World at School | Global Youth Ambassador
Right to Education | Education Youth Ambassador
National Youth Movement | Founder

My teacher was burnt in front of me, how I would get into the same class where it happened. And how can i be sure that next time i attend any class my teacher won’t face it again, how would i clear my mind of that incident which my innocent eyes watched and the screams of my teacher are still heard.

How could i sit in the same classroom, where my friends and i used to study, laugh, play and enjoyed all the moments of my childhood and school life was converted to war zone and the stains of blood still remains on the walls of the classroom. Should i be thankful to Almighty for saving my life? Why not my life is taken, my friend was better than me in every aspect.

I am the teacher of army public school peshawar. I always gave my students the hope of better tomorrow. But now neither my students are here and nor the better tomorrow.
Do i still have to go into the same classroom where innocent kids were butchered by these monsters? I am sorry, i can’t do it.

I am the mother, who sent her kid today to the school in the morning. Today my child asked for extra money, because she had to buy some chocolates to gift it to her friend, who was celebrating her birthday today.
Today my child had a different kind of charm on her face, she was happy and she kissed me while she left for school and said take care mom.
I am waiting for her to come back, i don’t know where is she now, but i hope somewhere from the corner she would jump and give me the tightest hug ever.
I love you my child.

I am the driver that used to take asma every day to the school. I can’t say anything else but today when i saw her dead body, i am not even able to support myself. I still can’t believe that little asma would not be going to school with me again.

I am the common man of this country. i just came back from hospital and donated blood for all the injured people and now i want to help people as much as possible. I would always be there for anything like this, but this time i was more devastated than ever, this time i couldn’t help to my fullest. I don’t know why this takes place again and again.

I wish it ends soon.

I am Pakistan. Today some people attacked me. Though i have been through many, but this one was the worst of all. Today i couldn’t save the young children of mine, today i disappointed many. I am sorry i couldn’t do it. I wish i had been able to save the child, who was rhyming some poem and couldn’t complete it. I tried but i failed.

This was the worst i have faced. I have been separated, i have been burnt, i have been closed down from peshawar to karachi, but i was always able to keep my kids safe. The innocent kids. They were mostly safe.
But i want to make it clear that these wounds are temporary and i would rise back. My people are the bravest in the world. I just want them to realise what went wrong, stand united and fight till all the evils are gone.

I am Pakistan.

EYA Abdul Samad Khan, ICT

No one who was at the Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, on December 16, 2014, will ever be able to forget the nightmare that unfolded.

At 10.30am, seven Taliban gunmen entered the school and began killing students and staff. More than 130 children aged from eight to 18 died that day and many others were injured.

The scale of the attack shocked the world and was followed by candlelight vigils across Pakistan and other countries.

To mark the anniversary of the Peshawar school massacre, one of the Education Youth Ambassadors (EYA) from our partner organsiationIdara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (Education in Pakistan) talked to survivors about their experience and their hopes for the future.

Aisha Rasool interviewed three students at the Army Public School – and one of them also shared a beautiful poem.

Students and activists march to pay tribute to the victims

Aisha said: “I heard that the children of APS are still courageous, brave and bold and they are continuing their education with new zeal and zest. So I wanted to see the hope in children eyes again. For me, they are little warriors of education.

“After interviewing them I realised their faith, their motivation, their strengths, have been rejuvenated and are restoring day by day.”

Another EYA, Ahmad Ullah Khan, is a teacher from Peshawar who also tutors students from the school. His and the students’ moving stories are told here.

MAHIN

I was in 10th grade at the time. It was a normal day. The sun shone like it does every day.

I got up early because I had an award ceremony and I was pretty excited about that.

I don’t even know whether to call myself “lucky” or what. I was in a corridor when I heard my teacher shouting and asking me to go hide in my classroom.

Then I heard a sound that shook the earth for a while. I went to my class and found my class fellows sitting on the floor at the corner of the room – a few of them were crying.

Students at the school prepare for the first anniversary of the attack

I still remember how we were asking each other for forgiveness and reciting Kalma-e-Shahadat.

I managed to reach home safely where I found my mother crying. I turned off my mobile and went to sleep. I woke up around 4.30pm and turned on the TV.

I could see my friends going to the hospital injured. They were bleeding. You have no idea how it feels to see someone in that condition when you know them.

People say I’m the strongest person and yet I cried. I cried a lot. I couldn’t stop crying for days. We went to the school after a few days, where we found our beloved ma’am (who lost her child) teaching and there came a huge river of tears.

My parents told me to join another school but I honestly didn’t want to. I went through so much and now I couldn’t leave that place just like that.

People thought that I won’t be able to score well because of this horrible incident. But God helped me and I took my examination in those classes, In those buildings, and I was able to score 96% in my finals.

A poster in Peshawar ahead of the anniversary commemorations

HAMZA

I was in first year when this heart-rending incident took place. The day before everything was perfectly normal.

On the day of the attack, it was a holiday for the first year. I woke up finding everyone shattered and in tears. I was traumatised thinking of my friends who were still in school while it was under attack.

As time was passing, the number of deaths was rising and I could do nothing to save my close companions.

Being in school for me is getting knowledge and wisdom to overcome the problems which I have to encounter in the future. No matter what force tries to resist me from getting it.

The terror still lies in the heart of us, walking by the buildings of our college. But it motivates us to study even more and become what our fellows had once wished to be.

AHMED

Education means everything. The feeling is like no other, all those memories.

To the terrorists my message is this: “You tried to kill us, instead you made us immortal. Our memory will live forever, giving strength and hope to all.”

Mourners outside the school after the attack last year

AHMAD ULLAH KHAN KHATTAK

December 16, 2014 was not only an attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar but on education as a whole.

I have been a teacher for four years. I have taught in Al-Hamza Public High School Peshawar and now I am also providing my services as a tutor in the evening. I teach children from class 5 to BSc level. They are from different schools but most of them are from Army Public School.

Mohsin Khan Shaheed was my student. I started to teach him when he was in 5th class. He was very intelligent and a good sportsman who loved to play cricket. He always had a smile on his face.

As usual, he got up early in the morning and went to school with his friends in their school bus. During the incident he was shot in the chest and head and died immediately.

His parents lost their child and I lost one of my brilliant students. Two of my students were also injured.

Education is right of every child, every human being. Some internal and external forces do not want our children to get educated and be a good Pakistani who can be an asset for our country in future.

MAHIN’S POEM

As long as there is the sun and sky

As long as the birds can sing and fly

So long shall be our Garrison

Our home, our hearth is Garrison.

With the power of knowledge we vow

We are the torch bearers for now

We have to rise and never fall

We have to set the trends for all.

Our glorious past will guide the way

In the form of a new, a newer day

That is the way we’ll march and claim

Honour and glory, and world acclaim.

Together we stand, together we learn

Together we serve, together we earn

Garrisonians we are, we dare to be

The one and only ones are we.

Garrisonians we are, we’ll always be.

Read more: A World at School Global Youth Ambassador reflects on the Peshawar school attack anniversary

Recently, I read the Odyssey One of the greatest works of literature, this is an epic poem attributed to the blind poet Homer. Written as a sequel to the Iliad, the Odyssey tells of the long journey by the Greek hero Odysseus. He has just fought in the Trojan War, and now, along with his men, is returning home. Altogether, it takes Odysseus twenty years to return. His journey begins in Troy. On his return home he faces cyclops, lotus-eaters, sea monsters, and hostile giants. After getting through all these adventures, the hero finds himself trapped by a goddess on an island. Meanwhile, in Ithaca, the home of Odysseus, suitors have thronged his palace and are each trying to win the hand of Odysseus’ wife Penelope. His son Telemachos believes that his father is still alive, and so, aided by the goddess Athena, sets out on a quest to find him

Accompanied with the synopsis of Greek ancient Poet Homer’s poem “Odyssey” I have started my odyssey to Hyderabad (Phaeacia of odyssey a place with civilized and hospitable people warmly welcome strangers) for National Education Policy 2016 on 1st September 2015. A central virtuous theme in “The Odyssey” is loyalty. Odysseus’s devotion to his family, his country and his god is unwavering, same as I found ITA work and mission for education sector in Pakistan for the last few years. When we reached Hyderabad the team was ready to assault the plan for fruitful end and extract impressive outcomes from Consultative meeting.

Submissively the meeting was kicked off I voluntarily helped the lead researcher while flipping the slides on his consent whenever his points to flip the next slide. I was close spectators of the facts and figures illustrated of erstwhile National Education Policy 2009 and its implications and the present day triumphs. Each information was awful and called for urgent action to be taken for sake of those children still have no access to education, favorable environment and sufficient books and teachers. That moment I realized why school performance charts in Pakistan are aligned with certain tools like non-functional schools, dangerous buildings schools, boundary less schools, ghosts schools and no schools rather than Productive schools, top rating schools, green building schools, solar energy and techno lab schools, O-A level schools. The unserious dedications and counterfeit honesty of teachers, education Department has resulted disappointing results. According to SEMIS Report 2013-14 of District Sujawal,Sindh out of 24,121 student enrolled in class 1 only 73 student made it to higher secondary school which less than 1%.The picture further gets vulnerable while demonstration condition of other districts of Pakistan. The meeting was invented by less interested and dedicated participant along with biased arguments. Over the years this country has witnessed many wars and natural calamities but never learnt any lesson. Once iqbal said” God never changes the fate of the nation until they do good to themselves.” It us me and you attended school and had the lessons in comfortable environments but now it’s the time to repay while educating each children and the nation to be literate and sensitive to education with Unity, compassion and dedication.

While returning back I the lines of Harmer roomed around in my mind:

Of all the cities he saw, the minds he grasped,

The suffering deep in his heart at sea

As he struggled to survive and bring his men home

But could not save them, hard as he tried—

The fools—destroyed by their own recklessness

When they ate the oxen of Hyperion the Sun,

And that god snuffed out their day of return.

I realized the fact that ITA or any other organization cannot help to devise any policy for any  district, province and government until the this nation including me apprehend our actual responsibilities to raise against evil of illiteracy and stop depending our inefficiency to support our kitchen on the bay of our children life and futures. Though the Homor was a blind poet yet he has clear imagination that struggle and dedication always result a prosperous ending but our Government could not see the drastic condition of education system while having eyes.