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Childnet Academy Contest
Children of Bam Welcome SAF's
ICT Site and Paint Shop
Bam Citadel before and after the
earthquake
On December 26, 2003 the city of
Bam was devastated by an earthquake, killing
approximately one-third of the population and destroying
Arg-e Bam, the historical treasure of the city.
Of the approximately 80,000 survivors of this
earthquake, there are approximately
21,000
students, the majority of whom are left in a
traumatized state.
On April 12, 2004, SAF launched an
ICT training program for the children of Bam at
its computer site in the center of the town. The
computer site consists of a server, 15
workstations, a printer, scanner, video projector,
cameras and furniture in a 36 square meter
prefabricated room equipped with a cooling unit in
the yard of the Enghelab Primary School in zone
four of Bam. In the first week of the project,
over 240 primary school boys and girls and local
women were given ICT training. In the past seven
weeks, over 500 students have received training
and six teams of teachers from all over Iran have
volunteered their time to teach in Bam.
On April 22, 2004, a paintshop was launched in
another prefabricated room next to the computer
site. While students were lethargic and somber on
the first day of training, they gradually became
energetic and high spirited in the course of one
training week. The boost in the children's mood
was also reflected in the substantial increase in
their concentration and pace of learning. In the
patterns and colors of students' drawings, their
hopes, dreams and love have flourished.
In addition to art and ICT
training, music therapy classes were established
by Sudabeh Salem, a composer and piano teacher
from Tehran. The classes are also run out of the
paint shop classroom and provide students another
way to express their feelings about the tragedy.
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