Giving back to society: Students helping underprivileged children get a shot at education

Hunehar Foundation seeks to alleviate poverty through education

ISLAMABAD: Capital students are playing their role to help street children have a shot at education. A “Meet and Greet” session was organised here on Wednesday, between potential students and volunteer teachers of the Hunehar Foundation, an organisation working on poverty alleviation through education.

One of the children present at the session was Maryum, a seven-year-old who used to roam the streets, since her father is suffering from cancer and her mother cannot afford to send her to school.

A group of students working for the Hunehar Foundation had her admitted in a private school.

Now in second grade, she is excelling in her education.

“She wakes up early, gets ready on her own and happily goes to school,” says her mother.

Ibrahim Khan and Usman Khan were also forced to leave school when their father was diagnosed with Hepatitis C.

They used to sell balloons near Commercial Market in Rawalpindi to help their mother, who sews clothes for a living.

They worked on the streets for two years before they met Hunehar members, who enabled them to go back to school.

The non-governmental organisation not only pays for the school fee, but also provides free books and uniforms.

Currently, about 100 such students, of various classes, have been supported by the organisation through various sponsors.



A group of 40 students from different universities and colleges such as Nust, Bahria, Air, Shifa, Iqra, CIIT, foundation and Riphah University - run the organization, who work voluntarily between their classes.

The organisation is solely run by these students and the majority of the donors are also students.

Although, some government officials and businessmen also support the cause, they wish to remain anonymous.

It has no office and interacts through social media.

Even the sponsors are engaged through Hunehar’s Facebook page.

“We just upload the information about the children on our page and ask if anyone wants to support them. Meetings are held through Skype and we often meet in various restaurants if we have to discuss something,” says Sami Uddin, founder of Hunehar who is also studying at Bahria University.

Initially, the students would go out and convince the street children to get an education but after threats from the beggar mafia, they now take only referred children.

A staggering 24.02 million children between the ages of five and 16 are out of school in Pakistan, according to the Pakistan Education Statistics 2014-2015.

Although, Islamabad has the lowest number of out-of-school children still 38,529 children are not going to schools.

The hardest part is to convince the parents who do not want to send their children to school because of the income they bring in, says Sami Uddin.

On top of this, vocational courses are also taught and children are taken on recreational trips too, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2016.