We are excited to announce that we have achieved our 2019 goal of building
The two new ECD Centres in Pakistan, inaugurated in October 2019, were constructed in compounds shared with a primary and a secondary school operated by the Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) who will also manage our ECD centres. These beautiful new schools are constructed with prefabricated light-gauge steel, which makes them very seismically sound.
Our Uganda building program is on track with four new ECD Centres nearing completion which will be inaugurated in February of 2020.
Our current Global Giving project focus is to raise $30,000 so that we can provide much needed help to our village-led Centre Management Committees (CMCs) and provide teacher upgrading and building maintenance. The CMCs charge school fees (ranging from $8 to $11 per term), but fees are often waived. Almost all our students’ parents have precarious incomes and paying school fees is not always possible. The fees the CMCs collect pay teacher salaries; school maintenance; supplies and a nutritious meal each day. IREAD provides ongoing teacher training and building maintenance and refurbishment. Every dollar we raise goes to the centres – IREAD’s administrative costs are paid by a private family foundation.
We are very grateful for your support and encouragement and hope you will join us in ensuring these centres continue to provide quality activity-based ECD opportunities to the deserving children of Pakistan and Uganda.
GlobalGiving Project Report
August 1, 2019
IREAD’s 2019 building program is going full speed ahead. We have broken ground on four new Early Childhood Development Centres in Uganda (at Bukeda, Butende, Kanungu, and Luzira) and on two new ECD Centres in Pakistan (at Raman and Shuist). IREAD board directors and ECD Centre donors will travel to Pakistan in the fall of 2019 and to Uganda in the spring of 2020 to inaugurate the Centers and to celebrate the introduction of ECD to the villages’ children. By the end of 2019, IREAD will have 21 ECD Centres—10 in Uganda and 11 in Pakistan.
IREAD’s remarkable growth has been possible thanks to the generosity of people like you. We have received donations of $50,000 USD for each new Ugandan ECD Centre ($200,000 USD total) and $37,500 USD for each Pakistani ECD Centre ($75,000 USD total). We have also received a pledge for our 11th Uganda ECD Centre, which we will build in 2020.
The fundraising goal for our “Build an Early Childhood Education Centre, Uganda” Global Giving project was $50,000 USD, which we reached in July. What a remarkable success! Thank you, everyone!
With this project wrapped up, our next Global Giving project will raise $30,000 USD to provide critical help to our village-led Centre Management Committees (CMCs) struggling to operate and maintain their IREAD ECD Centres. Although the CMCs charge school fees (ranging from $8 to $11 per term), they commonly waive fees. About 97% of our parents are subsistence farmers and the household’s income is heavily impacted by drought, heavy rains, low market prices, and so on. If school fees collected are insufficient, our CMCs cannot pay teachers; maintain and refurbish the Centres; supply the schools with water, soap, firewood and other necessities; provide school supplies and school uniforms; and give the children a nutritious meal each day. IREAD staff and volunteers in Uganda and Pakistan and IREAD board directors, in consultation with CMC leaders, will direct funds raised to those villages where the need is greatest.
We are very grateful for your support and encouragement and hope you will join us in making certain our CMCs can provide the best possible learning environment for IREAD’s ECD children in Uganda and Pakistan.
IREAD has broken ground on the first of seven Early Childhood Development Centres that will be built in 2019. Five ECD Centres will be built in Uganda (at Bukeda, Butende, Kasangati, Luzira, and Kanunga) and two in Pakistan (at Raman and Shuist). These new ECD Centres will allow for an additional 2,400 ECD enrolments each year and will bring us to 22 ECD Centres in total by the end of 2019.
IREAD builds centres in remote villages where ECD is not already offered but where there are sufficient numbers of children aged 3 to 6 to warrant an ECD program. Our criteria also includes selecting a villages that are eager to form a volunteer Centre Management Committee (CMC).
CMCs are integral to IREAD successfully delivering ECD programs. In addition to attaining local building material (bricks, sand, dirt) to build the Centre and providing unskilled labour to help with construction, once the school is operational the CMC moves into a management role. Members of the CMC act as our ambassadors, encouraging the village’s parents to enrol their children. The CMC sets and collects the school fees (which in Uganda typically ranges from $8 to $11). It is not uncommon, however, for fees to be lowered or waived for parents who cannot pay. About 97% of our parents are subsistence farmers and the household’s income can be heavily impacted by drought and low market prices.
The CMC uses the school fees to pay for:
We are very grateful for your support and encouragement. Your gifts are helping with the construction of one of the five new schools in Uganda (we have received pledges for the four other Uganda schools and the two Pakistan schools), and will help us to support the CMCs that do not collect the school fees they need to ensure they can provide the best possible ECD environment for the village's children.
Thank you.
While no new school construction was undertaken in 2018, a lot of ground work has been done to commence and complete construction of 6 new ECD Centres in 2019 including the one featured in this project. Selection of deserving communities that meet IREAD's criteria and the establishment of village - based centre management committees has been completed for 4 new centres in Uganda and 2 in Pakistan all slated to open in 2019.
In 2018, IREAD accomplished the following:
IREAD has received pledges from 4 major donors for school construction and is actively seeking donors for the remaining 2 schools in our 2019 building program. We are most grateful for your support and encouragemnt through Global Giving.
Thank you so much to all our donors. In the short time we've been fundraising we already raised over $300. The support from each and every donor is so valuable. We can't wait to get started on this new project. In the meantime, check out some of the photos from our other schools!
Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs are a highly effective means of strengthening society by ensuring that it's individual members live up to their full potential.
Children who participate in these programs tend to be more successful later in school, are more competent socially and emotionally and show better verbal, intellectual and physical development than children who are not enrolled in such quality programs.
By 2017 IREAD has built 10 ECD Centres in Northern Pakistan and 6 in Uganda. We have 1475 children attending these 16 centres and have trained 59 ECD teachers.
The centres in Uganda are certified and registered with the Ministry of Education and follow the national ECD curriculum
The centres in Pakistan are monitored by the Aga Khan Education Services and follow their curriculum.
The IREAD field team identifies villages that need an ECD Centre for which they are willing to donate land and elect a Centre Management Committee (CMC)
IREAD signs a written agreement with the CMC that specifies the amount of unskilled labour and local materials they will provide for the construction of the centre. This ensures that costs are well contained
Collaborating Organizations:
Our ECD Centres are focused on our 4 main values.
Child-focused: Holistic child development focused on evidence-based Early Childhood Development. (ECD).
Accountability: Our donors ensure that all donations are effectively used. We demand accountability from our beneficiaries in the field to ensure our centres are run effectively and efficiently.
Partnerships: With local communities, NGOs, educational centres, students and parents.
Empowerment: IREAD empowers local communities, training them to organize, run and maintain the ECD Centre. Villagers are recruited and trained as ECD teachers and caregivers creating employment and careers.
We will now be focusing on building our next school in Uganda.
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