Brother-sister duo opens two more street schools in Karachi

Siblings also introduce van service to ease travel for students living at distance

KARACHI: After starting a street school with 10 students in February this year, the brother-sister duo - Shireen and Hasan Zafar - have come far as they have now set up two new street schools, one in Qayyumabad and another in Zamzama, in addition to the existing one near Café Clifton.

Residents of Sea View Apartments, Shireen and Hasan are now teaching more than 55 students at the Café Clifton campus who sell flowers, tissue papers and even beg at traffic signals on the streets of Defence Housing Authority. The siblings, who set up some tables and chairs near Café Clifton on Khayaban-e-Shamsheer in February, are now being helped by four other teachers to give students basic education, such as teaching English and Urdu alphabets and counting.



The school set up at Café Clifton is divided into seven rows with three columns each and a division of playgroup till class one. "We teach them six days a week and on Friday we make them do exercises in PT class. They have an off on Sundays," said Shireen, while writing mathematics questions on the white board.

Shireen, who is a student of class eight, and Hasan, who studies in class 10, inspired by the street children who want to learn and study, started teaching them after school hours between 4pm and 6pm.

"We are expanding day by day and a lot of parents have made their children leave school and join our street school instead," said Shireen, while giving the example of Simran Sham, who left Mariam School in Shireen Jinnah Colony and enrolled in class one of the siblings' street school.

Sham told The Express Tribune that her school was not teaching her anything properly, while with Shireen and Hasan, she is learning new things daily.

Earlier, the brother-sister duo was supported by a non-governmental organisation. However, they are now running the school on their own expenses. "Daily, we give Rs50 to each student and some refreshments, such as juice or biscuits," shared Shireen.

"We have hired four teachers who can teach the basics of English, Urdu and Math for our Café Clifton campus," said Hasan, adding that the teachers are paid between Rs10,000 and Rs15,000, monthly.

Ajid Alam, one of the duo's oldest students, regularly comes from Neelum Colony to attend the street school and has also enrolled his younger brother now. "I enjoy my time here a lot because they also make us exercise and play with our friends [besides] studying," said Alam excitedly.

"I want to study and become educated like all other people but my family cannot afford it," said six-year-old Sidratul Muntaha, who has regularly been attending classes for the last four months. Her father works as a labourer and she feels proud when she can read some English alphabets to him, she shared.



The two new schools are also working on the same theme of giving daily pocket money to study and refreshments for the children, while each school has four teachers other than Shireen and Hasan, who dedicate half an hour to each school daily.

"We are lucky that our parents helped us and supported our idea," said Hasan, adding that people have helped them in providing funds and donations, but majorly they manage the street school system and salaries of the teachers on their own.

Pick and drop

A van service to pick and drop the children has been arranged by the siblings to ease the travel for students coming in from areas as far as Shireen Jinnah Colony, Neelum Colony and other adjoining areas.

"I use the van on a daily basis to come to school," shared a student, Mamta, who was solving mathematics questions.

Irum Sharoon, a resident of Korangi, who has been teaching at the Café Clifton campus for the last five months, also uses the van service to go to the school. "A friend of mine suggested this school to me and it really feels good to teach these children who actually want to learn," she said, while checking the Urdu homework of class one students.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2016.