Tagbilaran City village official Arlene Karaan (right) helps students displaced by fighting in Marawi City find a new school in Bohol province. —LEO UDTOHAN
TAGBILARAN CITY, BOHOL—Aslimah Matua, 19, dreams of becoming a teacher.
But the incoming junior student of Mindanao State University (MSU) in Marawi City may have to pursue her dreams in this city in the Visayas, after she and her family fled the gunbattle between government troops and terrorists holed out in a section of her home city of Marawi in Lanao del Sur province.
Aslimah spent weeks with her parents and 13 siblings in an evacuation site in Iligan City before they joined 12 other families in evacuating to this Bohol provincial capital.
When the latest batch of evacuees arrived here on Monday, six families sought refuge inside a mosque in Barangay Poblacion 1 while six others stayed with their relatives in Barangay Taloto.
Arlene Karaan, Poblacion 1 village chief, said among the problems raised by the evacuees was their children’s education.
“So far, only elementary pupils were able to enrol,” Karaan said. “We are trying to facilitate the enrolment of college students who wished to [continue studying].”
Aslimah and three other cousins were hopeful they would be given a chance to study in Bohol.
“I want to go to school. I want to finish college to fulfill my dreams,” Aslimah said, echoing a similar wish expressed by her cousins Nor-fatima Matua, 21, an education student; Aslimah Amer Lomala, 17, a Grade 11 student; and Samia Musa, 17, who is in Grade 7.
Karaan accompanied them to Bohol International College on Wednesday to inquire about school requirements.
Lomala said her parents and eight siblings left Marawi because of the horror brought about by the conflict.
“It’s chaotic. We had to escape. Bullets and bombs do not distinguish civilians from soldiers and rebels. We might die there,” she said.
The family of her cousin, Nor-fatima, also came here, scared of being caught in the crossfire.