In September 2010 work began to re-construct Ibn Sina school in Tawahi district of Aden in the south of Yemen. But still in 2019 the project was not completed due to problems with the contracting company. The school’s headmistress Mrs Rahima Tarboush Mujahid found no solution but to take advantage of an old building provided by the Education Office in Aden.
“The parents of the children were very supportive,” says Rahima. “They told me: ‘Please take our children to any school so that they don’t end up illiterate like us’.”
Despite the small size of the building, its dilapidated state and its lack of bathrooms, she was able to bring students back to have an education again. But local criminal gangs quickly started to use the school for their activities, which made the neighbours fear for their children’s safety. “I was crying when I saw how my school had been transformed into a dangerous place where violence and drug crimes occurred,” says Rahima in tears. “My students are harassed in the street while they go to school because it is far from their homes.”
Fortunately, with funding from BMZ, CARE intervened to implemented a school construction project. In spite of the threats from gangs and the theft of equipment from the site, after months of work the school was completed and the students were ready to return.
