Pakistani School Security Improvements

While the Pakistani government has seemed to have lost interest in forcing us to get all of the original updates completed right away we're still making gradual progress in complying with their demands. They've switched their focus to forcing illigal refugees to leave the country and the Talaban seems to have quieted down in our area. Thankfully all of our students who are children of refugees are in the country legally and are not in fear of being sent out of the country. As a result we're no longer in as much danger as we were a few months ago. That's not to say work has stopped we're just doing it at a lot slower pace than what we were doing initally.

The rush to get the initial improvements completed has left a hole in the budget that will continue to be felt long after all of the required improvements have been completed. While we intitally published the security improvements would cost us $6,000 the reality is that when all is said and done it will have cost about $17,000, that's $17,000 worth of funds that had to be diverted from elsewhere in our budget to cover the necessary expenses that were not anticipated when the budget was put together for the year. So while the initial push for funds has subsided we hope that you will continue to support us. 

After weeks of working with local workers we're excited to announce that the first gate has been installed! This gate not only helps us fulfill the regulations put in front of us by the Pakistani government but it also gives peace of mind to both students and staff. Ersari Elementary is one of our larger schools that serves over 400 students during the day and an aditional 50 girls in the evening, with a staff of 16 administrators and teachers. Our Pakistan program as a whole currently has a 41% female enrollement rate while Ersari Elementary currently has a 35% female enrollement rate.

Since Barakat's main goal is to educate girls we work very closely with the local community to learn about what they care about and what we can do to help them. Our main audience is the Afghan refugees in the city of Attock which means that not only do we have to keep the Pakistani culture in mind but also the Afghani culture as well. To try an accomidate as many people as we can Barakat offers both day time classes and evening classes. The daytime classes are open to both boys and girls while the evening classes are only open to girls. By offering evening classes we are able to make it possible for girls who need to be at home or work to support their families during the day to gain an education.

The school year in Pakistan runs from September to June like schools in the U.S. so students will soon be going on summer break, but administrators will be working thoughout the summer in preparation for the next school year. Before students finish for the summer they will be sitting through final exams which will determine who moves on to the next grade and who does not. We will share the results with the exam later in the summer once the tests have been graded and counted.