By Jahanara Shiraz | Manager, Academics, Non Formal Education
Danial is an eight-grade student at Bab-e-Safa Grammar, a private school in Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city. He shows up at school early and eager every day, neatly turned out in the navy blue sweater and tie that are part of his private school uniform. He does well in school and is a passionate student.
There is not much else about him that is similar to his classmates. He grew up watching his father working two jobs - as a auto-mechanic and a driver - and struggling to make ends meet to support Danial, his brother and two sisters. Danial worked with his father as an assistant, helping to repair the engines of motorbikes so they could collectively make up to 10,000 rupees a month. This experience planted in him the seed of inquisitiveness and an interest in becoming in engineer but school was still a distant dream.
Luckily, our field workers found him and he was recruited to study at one of our Lahore Paid to Learn schools, enrolling in an afternoon programme specially designed for children who work. This is where he realised that he had an innate drive to learn and developed a commitment to studying hard.
By excelling in the accelerated two-year primary education programme and graduating near the top of his class, he qualified for Secondary School Sponsorship, through which we fund the continuing education of our top graduates through matriculation in a mainstream private school.
It has now been two years since Danial was placed in the sixth grade at Bab-e-Safa Grammar School. Competing with children who have been studying in a formal school set-up since kindergarten was not easy but Danial's passion to become an engineer pulled him through.
Danial says he is struggling to make his journey beyond the possible with a hope that at the end all things would be possible. We at Zindagi Trust believe that hard work always pays off and for us Danial's is already a great success story. We wish him all the best for the future and hope that donors like you would continue to help us support the continuing education of these bright young minds.
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