What's in the bag?

We set up five schools in Sikanderabad for older women who had never received formal education. This is some of the stuff that was given to each school. Each school currently has 15 women over the age of 15. Each of them was given a bag-pack, a stationery box, one maths notebook, one Urdu notebook and a set of three books for Urdu and one math workbook. The teachers were given attendance registers, blackboard, chalk, coolers and a pedestal fan. Students from Ziauddin University school of Dentistry also gave a generous donation for these new students so that we could buy additional stuff for them. The first thing we bought were color pencils and number blocks so they can learn better by visualizing it.

The curriculum we are teaching is called Jugnoo which means firefly in Urdu. It is very symbolic in Urdu literature and has always been used to imply something that gives light and leads the way even though it is so tiny. This curriculum has been introduced by literatepakistan.org. The Urdu course is specially designed for people who have never been to school and after learning for just two hours a day for 90 days they would be able to read Urdu newspaper, write a letter and do everyday maths. The maths workbook also starts with basic principles and would make them skilled in simple math by the end of the workbook so that they can manage their daily and monthly expenditures better.

This is Samina's Urdu notebook. She is 19 and soon to be married. Before this she had never been to any school because the village she came from had age old traditions which never allowed women to attend school. Now since one of these new schools is right next to her house in Sikanderabad she is super excited to show up every day. Unfortunately she had the nasty habit of chewing Gutka which is a stronger form of tobacco chewed by some people in South Asia. Our student volunteer counselled her regarding the harmful effects and she was shocked and has vowed to cut down and eventually quit. It is not just the basic education we are trying to impart but also awareness regarding healthy habits too which is lacking in this area. Gutka chewing is a prevalent habit in slums as it is a cheap form of drug and is easily available. What most of them do not know is that it has a very high chance of causing oral cancers. Soon we will hold a proper awareness session for all students regarding Gutka and other drugs and all their lethal side effects.






These are photos from Samina's maths notebook. We are very proud of her for learning so quickly. She is a hard-worker and we are so grateful to have been able to bring her this opportunity.

This picture was taken at the school that is run in the afternoon at the PHC after the clinics for the day have ended. Samina and her friends study in this branch and absolutely love their teacher Gulnaaz. Gulnaaz is another hard worker and almost a superhero without a cape who deserves a special post just discussing all that she done and continues to do. We are very prevailged to have people in our corner who go out of their way to make other's lives better. They may not have enough but they are leading way for other women to learn from them and strive to be better.

By Zainab Faiza