The Plan For Now

I am a doctor. My sister has an MBA, my mother has an MSc, all my female cousins and aunts have Masters degrees too. Education for women is very important in my family and most other families I know here in Karachi, Pakistan. We do not have a system of student loans so all the educational expenses are borne by the families. For those students whose families are not able to pay for the college, they can get scholarships but unfortunately most of them then have to apply to smaller programs.

But there are still certain factions of the society which up till today feel that educating girls is a waste of money and effort. This mindset has vastly changed over time with conscious effort of government authorities and NGOs specially in the bigger cities here. Sikanderabad on the other hand is a squatter settlement where mostly uneducated people from small villages all over the country have emigrated to in search of small jobs. Most of their views are those that have been prevalent in their villages for decades based on how their ancestors saw and did things.

This photo is from the earlier meetings I had with some of the women here who had never attended school. I told them that I would be taking a photograph at the end and they insisted that their faces would remain covered for it. They were a group of 10, ranging from 15-45 year olds who had the most beautiful smiles and met my team with utmost humility. I wanted to know why they had never attended school when they were young. One of them said that back in their village only boys could go to school and so they never thought it was even possible for them. One of them said she started school here but her parents did not earn much so they decided to continue her brother's education and made her in charge of household chores so her mother could work as a maid. One of them said her father let her and her sisters go out to attend classes for religious education but feared they would not listen to him anymore if he sent them to a school. What is commendable now though is that all of them are doing their best to send their own children to local schools. They understand the importance having been uneducated themselves and when I asked them if they would like to enroll into school despite their busy schedule, they all very excitedly agreed.

In order to empower half the population of this area we have decided to start with basic education of older women with the grant received from the amazing MacJannet Foundation. The initial idea is to have five schools being run simultaneously in five different blocks of this area so that maximum women can benefit. At the Primary Healthcare Center (PHC) this idea was discussed and five women were identified who had at least completed their basic primary education. We could have hired professional teachers or even the University students could have taught them voluntarily but our plan is to keep it completely community oriented and to encourage them to stand up for themselves. In the past we have noted that some of our plans could not be implemented as they seemed too foreign to them and they could not relate to the teacher/organizer and always saw them as an outsider who was unaware of their background and cultural limitations. University students would visit them for awareness programs and other activities.

These women from different blocks were then met at their homes to see where they would be conducting classes. Their families were also invited to the PHC where they were informed about the plan and all their reservations and concerns were discussed with Dr Jawaid Usman who is the Head of Department of Family Medicine at Ziauddin University. An ideal time suiting the women had to be set for all the schools. Most women send off their kids to school in the morning and then begin doing their daily chores. Some of them work as cooks and maids in other parts of the city and are not home in the morning, It was decided that 3 of the schools would be run from 10 am to 12 pm and the other 2 would be run from 3-5 pm based on the teachers and students availability.

Four schools would be run in the teachers' homes and one in the PHC after the clinics have ended. Each teacher would be payed Rs. 5,000 (US $50) from the grant money every month. For now they will be teaching 15 women each from their lanes who are above 15 years of age and have never received any formal education before. I have been meeting them every week and all of them are extraordinary women who fought with the society barriers and some even their own family members to seek basic education. All four of them have also graciously offered to conduct classes in their own homes without any charge. With the prize money they will be provided with books, copies, bags, stationery and black boards. Some awesome person even donated mats and pedestal fans so these new schools so the students would be able to study comfortably.

For now the students would be taught Urdu and Mathematics as the basic subjects. Most of them speak Urdu as their second language so starting them on with English would take a while. All the new teachers are extremely excited to be able to help others like them and are determined to ensure that they will make a positive impact in their society.

In the coming weeks I will post how the University students are doing their part for their neighbors.

By Zainab Faiza