Maryam’s Mission

In 2009, the Taliban destroyed 10 girls’ schools in the tribal district of Dir, North West Pakistan – schools which Maryam Bibi’s charity, Khwendo Kor, had helped to build. Now she and her supporters are risking their lives by working to rebuild them, organising tents as temporary classrooms, until the burnt out schools can be rebuilt.

In 2009, the Taliban destroyed 10 girls’ schools in the tribal district of Dir in Northwest Pakistan – schools which Maryam Bibi’s charity, Khwendo Kor, had helped to build.

Now she and her supporters are risking their lives by working to rebuild them, organising tents as temporary classrooms, until the burnt out schools can be rebuilt.

But the Taliban can still launch attacks whenever they wish in these tribal villages – as a result, teachers are under threat and the children they teach are no strangers to tanks and guns.

Maryam organises special training for teachers, to help them cope with the possibility of suicide bombers and attacks on themselves or their schools, and to make them aware of the impact on young children who have witnessed violence.

As if the fight for girls’ education were not enough, Maryam also campaigns for peace organising the first women’s demonstration for peace ever held in Pakistan.

Maryam’s Mission is an intimate picture of the realities of life of the people struggling to survive amid the warfare of Pakistan’s tribal districts, told through the story of the remarkable Maryam Bibi.

Maryam’s Mission can be seen from Tuesday, July 13, 2010.