Schools: Educating underserved girls in Pakistan

As our staff and students return to post-pandemic classrooms, we are striving to create safe spaces for our teachers and students to share their stories and talk about things they went through times that have been anything but easy.  They are excited to be back, as we work to improve their physical and mental health through activities designed for them to reduce the stress they have gone through. It is heartening to see that despite repeated school closures during the year, children have made significant progress and are back to their learning routines. One positive thing that the pandemic has resulted in is appreciation for the importance of schools. Parents talk about their struggles to work with their children at home due to school closures, appreciating the role of teachers and expressing their gratitude.

With the final exams starting in April, teachers are supporting and motivating students prior to their exams by creating revision timetables.

We are trying to make improvements at the schools to facilitate meaningful learning and nurture well-being of our children, but due to limited resources we are not able to provide the school environment that we want. We are struggling to raise funds for this purpose.

I would also like to thank all our donors and partners who are on board with us on this journey for educating deserving children and for placing their trust in us. It is through your help and support that we are able to provide quality education to these children and make their dreams come true!

The pandemic has wreaking havoc on the lives of young children, students, and youth. and has impacted education in unprecedented ways. In Pakistan, since school closures in March 13, 2020, students had been studying from home, in a context of huge uncertainty and with families and schools having to navigate across options of hybrid and remote learning, or no schooling at all. Schools had been reopening for a few weeks but then as soon as number of cases rise, they had to be closed following government directives. The unique nature of the pandemic places a burden on the parents as first-line responders for children’s survival, care and learning.

We are now working to assess learning losses during remote instruction. Our teachers who have had to rapidly adapt, be creative, and shift roles, have been visiting children’s homes bringing them weekly lessons, distributing books and resource packs, hence helping them with their learning by providing remedial education and socio-emotional support to help them catch-up and ensure school retention, since there is an increasing risk of school dropouts as a result of contracting family incomes. Teachers play a major role as they set up meetings with parents and community members.

For older children they had been managing flexible schemes they have had small groups of 4-6 students visit them in their homes in rotation. It is a complex balance of managing health risks with the huge learning losses.

Now, with the reopening of schools, we are running two shifts to ensure safety and social distancing. The junior classes attend the morning session and Grade 5 and above come in the afternoon. These children are fighting for their dreams and working hard to achieve them. Please help us create a better life for them through education.