GlobalGiving.org: Educating 2800 child workers in Pakistan

Carnivals, Competitions & Cleanliness Drives

Sana Kazmi — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:27:54 GMT

Hey, you should come to school!

First up, a big thank you to all our supporters for making our work with these amazing children possible! The team at Zindagi Trust has been busy with the new term at the Paid to Learn schools across the country since our last update in August. We hope you enjoy the latest highlights from our schools:

Design for Change – Pakistan

Students from across our network of schools for working children brainstormed and submitted their creative ideas to the world’s largest Design for Change School Challenge, where children aged 8 to 13 identify and propose solutions to the problems their local communities face. Encouraged by their success in the event last year, when teams from our schools won the Jinnah Prize, the Quickest Impact Prize and the Most Environmentally Friendly prize, our teachers and students got to work and once again prepared some great projects for the competition this year.

Some of the ideas our students developed projects for this year include an effort to promote awareness about safe drinking water, a school enrollment drive, a project that converts electric poles on the street into beautiful tools of religious awareness, as well as a handwashing drive. The students have enjoyed brainstorming for ideas and working on putting them into practice. The school enrollment project in which our students reached out to working children on the street like themselves and educated and encouraged them (and their parents) to join school has already borne fruit with some on-the-spot enrollments!

The results of the competition will be announced at the end of the month and we are hopeful once again of a good show.

Ramadan Carnival

Late in August, we had a two-day Ramadan Carnival for 300 of our students in Karachi, thanks to the support of Coke. The students from the urban slums of Manzoor Colony, Mehmudabad, Haji Usman and Zia Colony – where we run four non-formal schools for underprivileged, working children – took part in the event. They were brought in buses from their homes or auto-shops to the spacious SMB Fatima Government Girls School, which Zindagi Trust manages as part of its public school reform project. The school was decorated with festive lights and theme trucks ready with games and gifts.

The Coke team and our teachers arranged games and competitions for the students. The event kicked off with a freestyle art competition, the top 30 contestants of which were awarded and their work displayed for all the students to see. Later, some of the students played cricket, another set played tug of war and some enjoyed the jungle gym in the corner of the Fatima Jinnah grounds. All the while, volunteers were decorating the faces of the eager students with hearts or butterflies in face paint, or taught them a sport they hadn’t played before, like basketball.

These carefree, fun activities held in a bright, festive and spacious environment were a rare experience for these children, who come from impoverished backgrounds and spend most of their days working hard on the street. The children were delighted at the opportunity to express themselves freely by something as simple as running around in a big playground!

At sunset, all the students, teachers and coordinators enjoyed a lovely Iftar meal. Later, all the children were given gift hampers, the highlight of which were cricket bats which the students couldn’t playing and posing with. The most unforgettable moment of the night came right at the end, when a continuous fountain of shiny coloured confetti was showered over the children who cheered with glee as they danced through the red-and-white rain like the rockstars that we know they are.

Beautify Your School

Earth Day was celebrated at all our schools with a “Beautify Your School” activity which promoted a commitment to keeping our environment clean and green. The students cleaned their schools and the area around them, collecting litter in bags and depositing it in marked litter bins.

For children living, working and indeed studying in urban slums where treating public space as a garbage can is considered the norm, this yearly event goes a long way in spreading awareness about the importance of a clean and healthy environment, not only among the students themselves but also their families and the people they work with at car-repair shops and general stores, etc.

The teachers also joined the students in this effort to demonstrate that cleaning up is everyone’s job and must be done with commitment and pride. The children were reminded that littering their school and their street was one step towards destroying the earth. Later, the children were asked to write a sentence each about the dangers of not caring for the environment and the importance of cleanliness to integrate the message into their everyday learning.

Get in Touch!

Please let us know what you thought of our programmes. We would love to hear your feedback about more events and activities that we can organize at our school, so if you have an idea about something our children would enjoy, please write to us - leave a comment here, shoot us an email, or catch us on Facebook or twitter! Thank you for reading and have a lovely day.

Talking to parents about the benefits of school

Student-run School Enrollment Drive: 1st recruit!

Students recycle to beautify & educate

Beautify Your School: Cleaning up!

Talking to children working in auto-repair shops

Cleaning up

A student drawing for the art competition

Students enter the playground for the carnival

A volunteer teaches the students basketball

A volunteer paints a heart on a student's cheek

Links:

http://www.zindagitrust.org

Updates of Zindagi Trust’s Schools Across Pakistan

Ms Jahanara Shiraz — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 07:42:04 GMT

Today, I would like to take this time and start the updates with a thank you note, which means a lot to us. Thanks to the generosity of our donors who are supporting us to literate the population of working children. Zindagi Trust and its beneficiaries are very grateful to all its donors and supporters who are making difference in their lives.

The impact that the project makes on the students is that these working children graduate in primary education and continue their secondary education. Confidence building and communication skills are at the heart of their education.

Last academic term ended in July, 2011. A total number of 275 students graduated. An intake of 350 children got admission in ZT schools across Pakistan. Academic coordinators are working for the admission of successful students in grade 6 in ZT co-operative private & government schools.

Mentioned below table shows the result and progress of Zindagi Trust schools across Pakistan, which is rated as Very Good.

Grade                         Percentage
A +                              40%
A                                 20%
B                                 17%
C                                 10%
D                                  5%
Needs Imp.                    8%

In August 2011 Zindagi Trust students across Pakistan started their new academic term with great interest. Teachers welcomed students in their new classes and distributed course books & stationery. A part from scheme of work, academic coordinators and teachers have planned a lot of activities which includes competitions, periodical picnics & celebrating events for the new academic term to make learning interesting.

Finally, Zindagi Trust is thankful to all the people for they’re over whelming help in cash and kind. The work of ZT would not be possible without the generous support of our donors around the world. We thank all of our donors and pledge to continue their great work!

We wish our patrons a very happy Ramadan, a month of God's blessings. We are confident that Zindagi Trust will remain high in their priority when donating to charitable organizations.

Academic Activities in I Am Paid to Learn Schools

Ms Jahanara Shiraz — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 05:32:30 GMT

Before sharing an overview on the academics in PTL schools across Pakistan, Zindagi Trust thanks all its donors, well wishers and contributors for their full support and contribution.

Recent academic term for Paid-to-learn Schools across Pakistan started in November, 2010. An intake of around 480 children got admission in PTL schools across Pakistan. A total number of 250 students graduated and 100 students were successful in getting admission in grade 6 in different private and government schools. It would be really heartening to know that since start of 2010, drop out ratio has dropped to 6%, which is much below the national drop out figure i.e. 50%

At this juncture i.e. beginning March, we are at the end of the academic term. Teachers and academic coordinators are engaged in preparing students’ consolidated report based on their on-going assessment. In March students will appear in the summative assessment and the term will end with promotions of students to next grades.

Apart from the content of the syllabus, academic team is very much focused on the ethical and emotional development of PTL students. The progress report comprises ethical and emotional development of each child as well.

Aforementioned initiatives and achievements raise our morale. We believe that it is all because of our donors’ support and good wishes. Zindagi Trust is obliged and proud of its donors.

We look forward to our donors continued support and an active participation in terms of suggestions and guidance.

Success:3 PTL Schools Wins Surf Excel Contest 2010

Ms Jahanara Shiraz — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:14:17 GMT

Surf Excel presented world’s largest Design For Change School Contest all across the globe over 50,000 schools. Last year it was initiated in India and was applauded the world over to a great extent. This year 25 countries participated in the contest (list of countries) and Pakistan was one of these. The contest was geared primarily towards students from classes 3-8 (8 to 13 years old) and induced Pakistani children to spread “I Can” philosophy amongst young generation in Pakistan to solve the world's greatest challenges.

About Contest
The contest timeline was from August, 2010 to October, 2010. Children were encouraged to visualize solutions to the problems that they face and execute them. It was 4 steps process; Feel-Imagine-Do and Share (Detail). Through this contest children got the exposure to sharpen up their creative and problem solving skills that each child possesses and is very crucial to nurture early childhood education.

Zindagi Trust Paid-to-learn Schools Win Three Prizes
From Pakistan 200 schools participated in the contest. (list of schools) Three Zindagi Trust PTL schools children across Pakistan at large tackled issues related to their own context and showed their commitment to change Pakistan and won; Jinnah Prize, Quickest Impact and Most Environmentally Friendly prizes among the seven categories.(categories detail). Zindagi Trust is proud of its students who proved that they will be among the leaders who are trying to bring change in Pakistan.

Results
Surf Excel team received 200 entries from all over Pakistan. Out of 200 entries 35 were declared winners. It was a very difficult task for the jury to group thirty five winning projects for this year’s Design for Change Pakistan contest by category. (Jury Profile)

Links:

Roaring Sussesss: PTL Schools Wins Surf Excel Contest 2010

Attachments:

Project Updates - I Am Paid to Learn

Ms Jahanara Shiraz — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:58:53 GMT

We are back to share with you last quarter’s report of Zindagi Trust I-am-paid-to-learn schools across Pakistan

I Am Paid To Learn schools graduate: A total number of 253 students graduated in June, 2010 across Pakistan. Out of 253 students 80 students showed their interest to continue their studies.

New Entry: An intake of around 500 children for K.G classes started their studies in I-am-paid-to-learn schools across Pakistan. The admission process was started in the month of May’10 and was completed by June’10. Preference was given to the siblings of children already in schools.

Expansion of Secondary Education for Zindagi Trust graduates: With the support of our donors we have achieved a mile stone of expanding our PTL primary schooling scope to secondary education for our promising primary graduates. A good number of cooperative schools across Pakistan agreed to support us in this noble cause. Finally, third batch of 80 Zindagi Trust graduates have been registered with various cooperative schools.

Summer Camp 2010: It was an exciting and memorable academic term for Zindagi Trust PTL schools primary graduates across Pakistan. Schools were on break for summer vacation during which summer camps were organized by our partner private schools. Every year this is the time when PTL schools students enjoy and have fun related activities.

Generation School Organized Summer camp at Zia Colony Campus-Karachi. It was a touching experience for Generians visiting a school in the slum area. The children there were very enthusiastic and greatly enjoyed the skill-developing activities planned for them. At the end of the summer camp activities, children were awarded shields and gifts. It was a satisfying experience for both the schools. Everyone did a great job and had fun with the bright children, enjoying heart warming community service!

On-going Assessment: On going assessment techniques have given positive results on students’ learning. On going assessment was carried out on daily classroom teaching to measure teaching and learning outcomes. The main focus of on-going assessment is to develop students’ conceptual understanding of different subjects, rather than passing tests and examinations. Students were assessed on their on-going assessment and were promoted to next grades. This year academic result was 99% which is rated as excellent.

Teachers’ Capacity Building: Since Zindagi Trust’s inception, special focus has been laid on teachers’ capacity building. Teachers are exposed to a variety of teaching / learning strategies and methodologies through which they try to make learning interesting and effective. Every six month academic team at Head Office reviews Teachers’ Training manuals. It is also one of the greatest achievements that teachers showed confidence putting into practice newly acquired knowledge and skills in a congenial environment in their respective schools across Pakistan.

Response from Donors: It is heartening to note that our concept of providing education to the less privileged at their door steps is receiving patronage with our donors through Globakgiving. Their response has encouraged us to bring further improvements so as to evolve the programme to meet the needs of the time. We look forward to their continued support.We also look forward to an active participation from our donors in as far as bringing improvements in our programme is concerned. Suggestions and guidance from our donors is very valueable to us.

Project update and interventions

Salman J. Shahwali — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:28:37 GMT

Zindagi Trust having provided primary education to working children in the last 8 years has now expanded the scope where the successful graduates have joined mainstream secondary education.

In this regard Zindagi Trust with the support of donors has developed a program to meet secondary education expenses of those children who have shown good academic performance during their primary education at Trust's I-Am-Paid-To-Learn Schools across Pakistan.

An average total number of 100 PTL schools graduates across Pakistan have started their journey of secondary education in private and government schools at their doorstep.

We are also braced up for our next batch of primary education that starts in July 2010 for which we intend to induct more than 300 working children across Pakistan.

These intentions of making a valuable difference in the lives of working children couldn’t be possible without your kind support and patronage.

Our children move on in life. We wish them success

Brig Abdul Haque (Retire) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:11:39 GMT

We too have a chance in life now.

Zindagi Trust Paid-to-learn schools' primary graduation ceremonies of 154 students were held across Pakistan on January 15, 2010 in their respective schools. A total of 64 students from North Region, 29 students from Center Region and 61 students from South Region graduated. The proud parents of graduating students attended the ceremony and were thankful to Zindagi Trust, which has played a key role in educating their children. It is a great achievement of Zindagi Trust that since 2006 to date a total of 920 working children have graduated from paid-to-learn schools across Pakistan.

"Zindagi Trust wishes all the graduates the very best for the future."

Thank you teachers. Thank you Zindagi Trust.

Links:

Zindagi Trust and its activities