A devastatingly sad news was just brought to our attention a few days ago. The only library in District Tank, KPK has been turned into a garbage dump. One of our followers tagged us in a post regarding the issue. Daastan found it absolutely gut wrenching and felt it was exceptionally necessary to create awareness.
Being a developing country, a large percentage of people in Pakistan suffer from multidimensional poverty. A root cause of this would be the lack of education, mostly in the underprivileged areas. This leads to many major societal issues such as: gender inequality, low literacy rates and lack of opportunities. What’s more concerning, however, is the fact that instead of working towards improvement, we are going as far from it as possible.
The Central Library, KPK
The central library was the only library in the entire district. It turns out, it had been closed for over 15 years! Daastan feels the need to raise our voice regarding the insensitivity towards the educational sector by the government. The library must be restored so that students can use it to their advantage. All resources, including internet services, should be provided to these students so they are not deprived from opportunities due to their geographical location.
Responsible Citizens to the Rescue
The former Pakistani cricket team captain and our favourite cricketer Shahid Afridi tweeted about the current state of the historical building. He took responsibility for the Library’s refurbishment: ‘Youth is our future & education is paramount to their development. I will ensure restoration of this library with help of my foundation.’ says Shahid Afridi.
It’s heart wrenching to see the only library in District Tank, KP, closed for over 15 years now. Youth is our future & education is paramount to their development. I will ensure restoration of this library with help of my foundation @SAFoundationN #hopenotout #education #saf https://t.co/fbL7Z0Mnhh
— Shahid Afridi (@SAfridiOfficial) August 18, 2020
We sincerely hope and pray that the provincial government also takes notice of it and prevents any such incident in the future. Daastan firmly believes that libraries are the fundamental source of education and their importance should be persistently reinforced.
