Since 2014, none of the schools we’ve built have been attacked and, more importantly, none of the children or teachers in the community have been threatened by insurgents. There has also been more dialogue with the military, allowing for a stronger relationship to be forged. Previously, women and children were afraid to talk to soldiers because of anti-military propaganda, likely produced by terrorists. The villagers told us that they had never imagined outsiders would care so much about their wellbeing, and that they were very thankful to the soldiers for taking us there. They said they could see their community becoming stronger and their children doing better in school.
During one of our research trips in mid-May 2015, we went back to check on one of the schools we had helped, since there had been more than 30 bomb attacks in the area during the previous weeks. However our school had not been targeted and the children were thriving.
The success of our project came from hard work and forward planning, but even then we faced many obstacles along the way, including things beyond our control. For this project, we spent a year researching the villagers, their living conditions and how we could help them, two months gathering the funds needed to make everything happen, two more months constructing schools, and another week arranging activities in the village in order to create a positive impact for everyone.