Nosheen's School

This video is from the school Nosheen and her sisters are running. Nosheen is 17, has finished high school and is waiting to apply to College. Her mother is uneducated and attends her daughter's classes. After coming to the city their father realized how much education had changed other members of their community in the city and he vowed to educate his children. He did extra jobs to ensure that his children stayed in school. Now two of his daughters have completed Bachelors degrees and one of them is planning to apply to work at Ziauddin Hospital. The other one is planning to get into Government Service after she clears the entrance exam. Nosheen is currently home full time so she is the one mainly running this school.

Being so young it was initially a challenge for her to teach women older than her specially those who had no basic education. Most of them laughed at themselves and at each other because learning to hold a pencil and to trace on dots and then to formulate words was all very new to them. With time they have become confident in their skills and Nosheen has proven to be a very smart teacher who understands each student individually and guides them accordingly.

 The woman in black dress is Shehla. She is the backbone of this entire program. Soon I will write a detailed blog about her, she is my greatest inspiration here. She goes to theses schools everyday and helps teachers and instructs students. Nosheen is the girl sitting on the chair and her mother is the student facing me in pink dress.

Nosheen runs the school in her courtyard. The photographs are from when they had not received the mat to sit on. Most of the women in her school are from the Pathan ethnicity. They are beautiful people inside out and are the most hospitable to their guests. Every single time I visit they make sure I eat with them and if I am there for a short duration, they will give me some food to take away. Most of them follow staunch religious and cultural believes and always cover their faces while being photographed.

 Women who have no one else at home who would look after their children bring them along. We do not discourage them as this would mean that they would stop attending classes. We understand this is all new for them and their families and before this they did not do anything which was for their own selves so now we try to be accommodating just so that they would come and attend school. The seemingly young girl in blue pants is actually 18 and has achondroplasia. Before this she never got any chance to receive education. Her parents believed there was no need to get her educated considering she was disabled. Now since this school was free and her own lane, her mother let her go and she is very excited to learn Urdu and Maths and interact with other students around her.

The students are happy they are learning new things and have others around them who share the same experiences with them. Some of them are super eager and keep on pestering me as to what we will do after we are done with their course work. I have told them that we are learning along them too and we will see how it can then be taken forward in the future and where we will place them then.

By Zainab Faiza