Education Pakistan Project #12148

Empower Marginalized Communities Of Pakistan Sindh

by Primary Education Project / Diocese of Hyderabad

Empower Marginalized Communities Of Pakistan Sindh

Project Report | Jun 17, 2015
Happy Summer's From Pakistan!

By Hannah Valentine | Public Relations Officer

PEP Teacher showing students how to use a tablet

Dear Friend,

Happy Summers from Pakistan! We're delighted to share PEP's quarterly project report with you. We hope this report will help you gain a clear understanding about the activities our project is involved in.

We dearly Thank You for staying connected to us through Global Giving and supporting us! Have a read on all what has been going on in the three months at PEP.

Summary:

PEP has specifically been working with two main projects in the past two months. One of the projects involve tablet devices for students to integrate E-learning in their curriculum. The other project involves health (CLTS) training with the provision of hand pumps for the new 14 PEP schools.

PEP has been involved in the two main trainings for students and teachers. We have been providing a Social and Financial (Aflateen) training for teenage students during the month of May, and in the beginning of June we were involved in providing the 2nd quarterly ITEP training to the new teachers for the new 14 PEP schools.

After the ITEP, all the teachers have an opportunity to share what they learnt during the training. A PEP teacher, Misree Lal, describes how the things he learnt in the training are making an impact on his life.

Contents:

Smile Project

CLTS Project

Aflateen Training

Exposure Visit For Aflatoun Students

2nd quarterly ITEP Training

Teacher Testimony from the ITEP (Link given below)

PEP Team Holiday!

SMILE PROJECT:

With the support of Concentric Development Inc, the Primary Education Project (PEP) DOH has now introduced E- learning system in its schools via SMILE plugs. This system will provide the students with technical skills which are very useful in present days.

Concerning this, PEP has started a pilot phase project in one of their schools at Tando Ghulam Ali (TGA), that has given 55 students the chance to integrate IT into their learning environment. The tablet device is capable of operating 20 tablets in one time displaying same web pages on all tablets. The device has some really useful contents such as Khan Academy, Children books, seed of empowerment and many other great contents. These contents are helping students gain advance learning skills.

PEP students are delighted to welcome this new addition in their curriculum. We hope that their summers get exciting as they venture in the world of E-learning through the SMILE plugs!

LIVING HEALTHY

Community Awareness Program (CLTS)

The Primary Education Project is privileged to be supported by the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) for a new project. CBN has funded a Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Program for our 14 new schools in 5 areas of Rural Sindh, which includes the provision of hand pumps.

While helping PEP schools with sustainability, we also want to educate communities to develop a hygienic system where people can live a healthy life while growing towards a great educated future.

During the month of May we achieved the target of providing CLTS training to all the 14 communities where PEP has started its new schools. The task was tough as the heat of summer was quite harsh. But our team members made it happen and visited each village carrying out the awareness program with great enthusiasm and commitment. The communities were taught by using charts, role plays and community discussions that were helpful for gaining understanding.

Now, the communities have been provided with their own hand pumps so that they could use clean water and observe sanitation.

Aflateen Training:

The Aflateen program is basically a part of a larger movement called Aflatoun, which brings Social and Financial Education to children and young people worldwide. Made up of three sub-programs, namely Aflatot, Aflatoun and Aflateen, it reaches children between the ages of three to 18.

Social and Financial Education is aimed at helping young people think critically, learn about rights and responsibilities, and gain financial knowledge and skills that will enable them to achieve their dreams.

It also helps them reflect and make sense of the life transitions they are going through, and how they can best be engaged in the world.

Now that the Aflatoun program is thriving in PEP schools, our team decided that it would be good to extend the program to another level. That is when PEP launched Aflateen program as a branch of Aflatoun. Aflateen program will give PEP students a broader perspective about how to bring positive changes in their life and in their surroundings. Before this launch, the Aflatoun Project Coordinator made visits to some of the PEP schools and selected active students for the Aflateen training after doing a Need Assessment.

During the last week of April the students that were selected were given the Alateen training so that they could go back to their schools and start new Aflateen groups.

An Exposure Visit For Aflatoun Students In April

23rd April was a perfect day for a dream fulfilling experience for PEP students!

The students of Aflatoun had a great chance to visit the Sindh University and explore UNI life.

It was an abundant experience for all the children as they came from villages and they had never seen a big institute in their life.

The purpose of this visit was to give them an insight about UNI life and to prepare them for further studies. The children enjoyed visiting different departments of the UNI, and they were greatly encouraged by the environment and system.

A student remarked that he felt so honored to be learning about a university. The visit in short gave children the insight that they could choose to study, because they have a right to education.

2nd Quarterly ITEP Training:

PEP provides training to our teachers so that they can not only teach effectively in the classroom but also act as change agents in their communities. PEP has a training department that involves a team of trainers who build the capacity of teachers.

This week PEP's training department was involved in conducting a one week training for the PEP teachers of the new 14 schools.

The teachers were trained for the supplementary as well as the government curriculum that is provided in PEP schools. The supplementary curriculum includes, Social and Financial education (Aflatoun), Peace education, Women's Empowerment (WEP), Community Health and Sanitation (CLTS), and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). The government curriculum involves Letter Land (English), Urdu, Sindhi and Mathematics.

The PEP Holiday was an exclusive four day trip made in April 2015. The team went to Punjab and visited the different landmarks of that place. The landmarks included the Rohta's Fort, the great palace of Afghan king Sher Shah Suri. The Salt Mine which is known as Khewera and old Hindu temples known as Katas in the district of Punjab. The trip resulted to be fruitful and educational because our team had the opportunity to learn about the places they had never seen before.

Another fabulous part of the trip was the hiking and boating. Both of these activities turned out to be relaxing and enjoyable. PEP team had the chance to savor good food and the travelling itself made the it more like a holiday!

We believe that when we all work hard it becomes important to have some time where we can enjoy. This brings more motivation and builds enthusiasm for what we are trying to achieve.

We would love have your comments and feedback on our report. You can email hannahvalentine.pep@gmail.com for any questions or comments.

Thankyou so much!

CLTS Awareness Training

CBN Hand pumps provision

Aflateen Training for PEP Teens

Aflatoun Exposure visit

PEP Team On Holiday

Links:

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Mar 20, 2015
Its All About Changing People's Lives

By Hannah Valentine | Public Relations Officer

Giyan's School

Dear Friend, we are very happy to be writing this year's first report for Global Giving. Through this report you will learn about the achievements of Primary Education Project throughout 2014, and about the new activities taking place in our project, this year. So read on!

64 village LEAP schools had become self supporting during 2014, and PEP has established 14 more village LEAP schools in 2015. PEP currently has 78 village LEAP schools running in five areas of Rural Sindh.

NEW SCHOOL BUILDINGS

Recently in 2014, PEP was able to construct 5 new school buildings for the sustainable schools that gave children a better environment to study. According to the PEP policy, school buildings are constructed for those schools who are able to prove their sustainability, and their commitment to education. The achievement of new school buildings has raised the villagers status among other villages, and has encouraged them to maintain their position.

The 5 village LEAP schools have been selected on the basis of the School Management Committee's (SMC) ownership, commitment and motivation for the long term sustainability of their schools.

WOMEN'S PROGRESS

Women at the other hand, have been supported through the Women's Empowerment Program (WEP) and have made a big difference in encouraging other women to join WEG groups. Through establishing new 14 WEG groups in each village, the women were able to have the awareness about girls' education, early marriage, health and hygiene, human rights and savings. This awareness helped to increase the enrollment of girls in the PEP schools, and a lot of women understood the importance of education for a girl.

TRAINING FOR RURAL TEACHERS

The teachers of our schools have been very committed to the purpose of teaching and developing the potential of children. The PEP Teacher Training (ITEP) serves as the core of our project, as we aim to build an effective network of teachers that can lead their communities to an educated future. We are very privileged to witness PEP teachers grow in confidence and in potential through PEP trainings.

DISCOVER HOW GIYAN AND HIS FAMILY WERE BENEFITED THROUGH THE PROGRAMS OF PEP

Giyan is one of the qualified teachers at PEP school. He had a tough life in his young years and he had to struggle for a quite long time to get an education. His father had passed away when he was very young, and since then he worked hard to help his family as well as for achieving an educated future. When he attended the Initial Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) in 2009, he was able to develop his potential in teaching and that gave him the confidence to teach the poor children of his village.

As Giyan’s mother worked in the cotton field, she had to face some hardships because the crop season only lasts six months and so for the rest of the year it was difficult for her to earn enough income. Giyan became worried about this as each family member has to pool their income so that they have sufficient resources for the whole family.

PEP gave the village an opportunity to start a WEG Group and Gian’s sister became a member. 30 women from their village joined the group and the members saved money regularly and used it to help each other.

Giyan realized that this would be an effective way to increase their family income. He suggested his mother take a loan to start a sewing business. It was successful, and from the profits she and her daughter paid back a loan they had taken.

Through the WEG, Giyan was able to help his family and his mother earn sufficient income and have inner satisfaction from their achievements. They have understood their rights and what it means to help one another.

By having WEG in each village, the women now have a chance to make themselves self-reliant and purposeful members for their communities.

EVENTS TAKING PLACE AT PEP

The monitoring team of PEP is visiting the 14 new PEP schools that have been started from 2015, to monitor the children's progress.
The team is also involved in taking the Annual Status Of Education Report (ASER) tests from the older PEP schools. These tests will be measured for the ASER Report 2015, as we aim to support the government in reaching the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for Pakistan.
14 new hand pumps and two attach washrooms (for girl and boy) are to be built in the new PEP schools this year.
The school building construction has been started for the 3 PEP schools since February.

One of the 5 PEP Schools, Built in 2014

Hand pumps and Washrooms at PEP schools!

Giyan's Family

Teacher Training (ITEP) at PEP

A Women's Empowerment Training in 2015

Links:

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Dec 23, 2014
Has your faith, ever wavered in time of distress?

By Hannah Valentine | Public Relations Officer

The school in hut

Deep in the heart of Sindh, there was a community that experienced a time, they won’t forget.

This community belonged to a Hindu (Kachhi Kholi) caste that opened a school in 2005 with the help of Primary Education Project.

The people of this village always had a dream to provide quality education to their children. When the field team of PEP met with the landlord of the village, they were delighted to find a hope of an educated future. The landlord of the village wanted his people to be educated. So, the Primary Education Project opened a school in their village, and the community experienced great joy by this gift of life.

After the school was made, the people of the village started to witness the gifts of quality education from the Village LEAP School.

But, on the way of success, there are always challenges to be faced.

The Kheto Patel village faced a dangerous challenge that shook their hope in a better tomorrow.

During the monsoon floods, the school in Kheto Patel village was severely damaged leaving the students with no hope. The disaster had caused a great loss of academic studies for the children, and it would take several months to build a new school.

But, even in such a challenging time, the community did not lose heart. They showed great courage and they were determined to find solution for their loss. They did not want the children to lose their precious time of study, which is why they decided to continue the school. They built a school in a small hut and encouraged the children to come to study.

The children started to come to their new hut school, and soon they started a regular system of study once again. Through their faith, they experienced a light of hope in darkness.

Today the community members of the village have managed to rebuild their school in a hut, but the danger of the floods in the coming year is still looming over their village.

This village needs a proper school building so that the children could have a safe environment to study and the light of education would always be burning among the students of PEP school.

This holiday season, give a gift of life by building a school in rural Sindh.

After floods

Links:

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