Banking on education

Sometimes the simplest ideas if put into practice properly can be extremely effective. An example of this is the Social Action Project being implemented by Kiran Kumari: a book bank; a simple but effective concept.

Being a school teacher in Sindh, Kiran knows well the hurdles faced by economically disadvantaged individuals – especially when it comes to educating their children. So it was only logical that when Kiran completed her Active Citizens training she would start a Social Action Project to make the education process less costly for parents who struggle to make ends meet.

Kiran asked her students to donate school books to her so that other, less fortunate children may use them. She also reached out to friends, relatives, and other teachers in the area for any reusable books that they could spare. With the help of her students she got rid of any erasable markings from the books and covered the books with clean scrap paper to protect them.

A large section of Kiran’s class consists of children whose parents don’t have a steady source of income. To make ends meet they work odd jobs – mostly as manual labourers. Kiran made a list of students who came from such homes.

As the donated books started coming in Kiran let the more deserving children know that they could use the books from her book bank free of cost. Her two conditions: that they take care of the books as if they were their own, and that they return them to her at the end of the term.   

Kiran first ‘tested’ her social action project in April, and nearly 60 students were able to make use of the books provided by Kiran. According to Kiran parents who rely on daily wages to get by this was an added bonus.

When asked about her plans for the project, Kiran replies: “I have decided to do this activity every year collect books from last batch and provide to next batch. Through this more than 100 students can get benefit from my book bank”.

Where there is a will there is a way

Shahzeb Shah lives in Mirpur Bhatoro, a small town of District Thaatta in Sindh. The education rate of Mirpur Bhatoro unfortunately has never been high and most the residents of the area live in poverty and below the poverty line in some cases. Most families make ends meet usually through partaking in agricultural activities.

Shahzeb is one of the fortunate ones who had access to education growing up in Mirpur Bhatoro. As a matter of fact his mother is the principal of the town’s only public school. Growing up in an educationalist household Shahzeb was quick to notice that even with an educational facility present people still hesitated to send their children to school.

After attending the Active Citizens training offered by the British Council through a local partner Sindh Radiant Organization (SRO) Shahzeb decided to investigate this matter further and ultimately take steps to improve the state of education in his town.

With the help of other young people Shahzeb went door-to-door to investigate whether children of local households were receiving an education – and if not, what was preventing them?

Soon this group of Active Citizens discovered that parents who were usually reluctant to send their children to school headed families that lived in abject poverty. Their children usually helped them with household chores, worked odd jobs, and sometimes even begged from passers-by on the streets to bring some change home.

With great effort and patience they convinced parents of out-of-school children to send their children to school free of cost.

After conducting this initial research Shahzeb and his friends started the second phase of the project: they convinced Shahzeb’s mother to let them use the school’s facilities to offer free classes to out-of-school children. It did not take much effort to convince her and the arrangement reached was that Shahzeb and his group members could use two class-rooms in the evening when regular classes were over to offer free lessons to deserving children.

Soon the free tuition centre was up and running and the two class-rooms were brimming with children. Shahzeb and his friends pool in their funds to buy books and supplies for the school.
Nearly 80 children attend the free tuition centre, out of which 50 are girls. Besides providing lessons in basic English, Urdu, Sindhi, and Maths Shahzeb’s groups also concentrates on character building classes and providing awareness about hygiene.

Shahzeb and his youth group have made a point of making learning fun for their students. Children are encouraged to indulge in physical exercise when not in class. In fact learning in a safe and enjoyable environment and being coached in sports like cricket and football are some of the things that children look forward to each night when they go back home. And the satisfaction of making learning an enjoyable experience is what makes Shahzeb and his friends continue teaching at the free tuition centre.

Knocking down walls

Salman Uqali is a resident of Maqli, Thatta. The housing community he lives in is located in the better part of the city. One disturbing trend that Salman noticed though was his neighbour’s practice of encroaching on public land. Soon this practice of building illegal encroachments spread throughout the neighbourhood; the city authorities too did not take much notice of this illegal activity.

The two lane road of Salman’s street was soon turned into a one lane road because of structures raised on one side of it. These included extensions to drive ways, and in some cases boundary walls of houses too covered part of the road.

Not only did this cause inconvenience for motorists and pedestrians it was dangerous as well. Another effect of the encroachments was that they drove down property prices of the housing community.

It was apparent to Salman that this illegal activity had to be stopped – starting with this own house. Salman’s house’s boundaries to extended over into the city’s land but he convinced his family to remove the illegal construction.

Deciding to have all illegal encroachments removed from his neighbourhood Salman began researching Thatta’s zoning laws and paid regular visits to offices of the local authorities.
Because of Salman’s persistence the illegal encroachments were soon removed from his neighbourhood and the road passing through his street is being repaired and will once again have two lanes.

A second chance for mothers

Providing opportunities for education to young mothers has a two-fold effect: an adult has a second chance to get an education that they could not when they were younger, and secondly young mothers are more likely to raise educated children. Educated mothers also have the option of educating their children at home if they cannot afford the tuition fee or other expenses that are associated with sending a child to school.

The main reason that young girls don’t attend school is their family’s poor economic condition. Additionally, when a poor family is faced with a choice between sending a boy or a girl to school, more often than not they will opt for educating the male child.

A Social Action Project (SAP) named Steps Against Illiteracy was started in an impoverished area of Karachi to fund a school providing classes to young mothers and their children at a cost as low as possible, and sometimes free of cost for especially deserving students. The school is called “The Citizens Foundation School” and offers classes three days a week in the morning and afternoon.

Some of the goals of the school are to enable the students to write and read basic Urdu and English, and to be able to perform calculations for day-to-day tasks such as shopping and planning the household budget.

The school is meant to run for three months. In this time its students will not only gain knowledge that can be applied to daily tasks but will also give them the background and confidence to apply to a “proper” school. The Citizens Foundation School may be a short-term venture but its benefits may very well last for a long time.

Youth group shines in Umerkot

Environmental pollution is a problem that the citizens of Umerkot have long since been plagued with. Shine Active Youth Group decided that enough was enough. They started a social action project to spread awareness about the dangers of living in a polluted atmosphere and to take steps to minimize environmental pollution. They concentrated mainly on the lack of green spaces in the city, and inadequate sanitation facilities.

Since Umerkot has a very high illiteracy rate, the group members made a conscious effort to personally interact with the members of the community as much as possible, and to explain their cause to them and the dangers of living in a polluted environment. Shine Active Youth Group held meetings with community members to get the message about their cause across and to gather more support for it. They also distributed pamphlets in an effort to reach out to people whom they did not get a chance to meet.

The group also presented their idea for planting more trees and plants to local and international NGOs, and were provided with plants and saplings by them. About a hundred plants and saplings were planted – mostly in girls’ schools which lacked greenery by members of the group. Two community members with entrepreneurial leanings were also talked into starting a nursery in the city with their personal funds.

The group members also reached out to the women of the community and made an effort to educate them about disposing of trash in a safe and sanitary manner, and not out in the open in their street.

The Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) was also approached, and the group successfully campaigned for the removal of five rubbish heaps from the city limits. The issue of two blocked drainage pipes was also successfully resolved. The TMA was also persuaded to place rubbish bins at specific locations from where the city dump trucks could collect the waste and dispose of it properly.

Get up, stand up

Ghotki is a district of Sindh with a population of more than 970,000 and a very low literacy rate – estimated to be 29% for men and just 11% for women. Most schools of the area lack proper libraries and recreational facilities like playgrounds for students. The children and young people who are enrolled in schools are unaware of most of their rights and entitlements as students.

The Ghotki Active Youth Group was formed by young Active Citizens who wanted to improve the way schools are run in their community. The group reached out mainly to secondary school and high school students and talked to them about their rights and what they can do to demand them in a proper manner.

Some of the issues faced by the young people of the district highlighted by the group were a lack of learning and recreational facilities, a lack of higher education bodies, absence of a youth forum, the need for more coordination, networking between the young people of the district, and a lack of counseling services for young people – educational or otherwise. The denial of the rights to access to information and freedom of expression is also a source of concern.

Student rights awareness sessions were conducted in four schools by the group. About 200 students were reached by the group during the course of their campaign. A speech competition was also arranged which gave students a platform to voice their grievances with the school management and to make their demands known.

To ensure that student rights are safeguarded in different schools, the group members also helped organize a student youth group in a local high school and provided training to its members.

Funds for the group’s activities mainly come from donations from group members. Additional funds are raised through sponsorship from local businesses. In all, the group members were successful in raising about Rs.22, 000 to finance their awareness campaign.