Bringing Madrid to Lahore

Meet the young group of educationists who will literally go to any length to spread their message

You have to either be an idealist or a Good Samaritan if you are willing to drive 15,000 kilometres by road on a Nissan Patrol 1998 model and cross a handful of borders to be in Pakistan. The trio of twenty-something boys behind ThinKids, a Spanish NGO, who collaborated with Rabtt, a Lahore-based NGO, to conduct an educational summer camp at Saint John’s Boys High School in Youhanabad, a low fee missionary school in the city’s largest Christian neighbourhood, are perhaps a bit of both.

The students develop a 3D model for their group project during one of the sessions. PHOTOS: RABTT AND THINKIDS 

“Children around the world are very similar; they have questions and are looking for answers. That is why we decided to launch ThinKids World Camp 2014,” explains Ignacio Gonzalez Cabello, who co-founded the initiative in 2010 with his partners Javier Gutiérrez and Santiago Aldanondo, to promote an innovative approach towards education which enables children to become entrepreneurs at an early stage. “[This is also why we] have come to Lahore, Pakistan, after conducting week-long camps in China, Turkey, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Iran.”

But it takes a little more than just guts to come to Pakistan by road. “We were browsing the internet for organisations doing similar work in Pakistan and accidentally stumbled upon Rabtt. We were elated to have found an organisation that works similar to ours in Spain,” says Cabello.



Rabtt, which literally translates to ‘connection’, was founded in 2011 by Harvard graduate Imran Sarwar, in partnership with Harvard University South Asia, British Council Pakistan and Seeds of Peace International along with a few others. The NGO seeks to develop critical thinking abilities, empathy, communication, collaboration and creative self-expression in children from public as well as private schools through summer camps and other mentorship programmes. Even though the organisation is still relatively new, the small team has already conducted 12 workshops and numerous camps and engaged over 1,300 students and 150 volunteer mentors in Pakistan. “When we met Imran, we were fascinated by this concept of volunteering for free in Pakistan. In Spain, it’s always difficult for us to get volunteers; usually it’s just my brother or my cousin,” explains Cabello.

A scene from the classroom at Saint John’s Boys High School during the summer camp. PHOTOS: RABTT AND THINKIDS 

Through the World Camp 2014 mission, the two organisations found common grounds to work on — to make learning fun for children globally — and thus came about the Youhanabad summer camp, which included unconventional activities such as public speaking, spatial intelligence and 3D workshops. Over the course of five days, children were encouraged to think out-of-the-box, solve real world problems and ignite their multiple intelligences through games, computer programming, music, art and group projects. “Some of the problems identified by these boys were related to electricity, contamination, lack of playgrounds,” explains Gutiérrez. “The problems children face in Spain are different.” Another issue that was identified was the students’ misconception that English can only be learnt by travelling abroad — something they did not have the money to do. “To solve this problem, the boys built a social media website, something like Facebook, that would let teachers give English lessons for free, and in return the children would pray for them. This was called Teach4Pray,” says Cabello.

Javier strikes a chord with the students during guitar lessons at the summer camp. PHOTOS: RABTT AND THINKIDS 

During the initial days of the workshop, the students merely repeated whatever task was assigned to them by their mentors, revealing a lack of creative thinking and fear of asking questions. Language was also a barrier  but the Rabtt volunteers translated for both parties. Over the next few days, however, the boys eased into the sessions and began to show initiative. “If you’re hungry, I can teach you how to fish, so tomorrow if you’re hungry, you can fish on your own,” says Guiterrez. “And that is how we would summarise this mission!”

Sarwar feels that the biggest advantage of cross-border collaborations is that students are able to interact with people outside Pakistan. “We found out that education has similar challenges all across the world,” he says. This camp was an experiment but Rabtt wants to do something on a bigger scale next year.

A group photo of the boys from Saint John’s High School with Ignacio from ThinKids. PHOTOS: RABTT AND THINKIDS 

The trio is headed to Nepal next for a similar camp but their link to Pakistan does not end here. “Before coming to Pakistan, we had no idea what was going to happen. Authorities tried to convince us to not do this, but when we finally crossed the border from China, it felt amazing!” says Aldanondo. “Of course, we will come here again.”

Anum Pasha is an international development professional and a writer based in Lahore.

She tweets @crazyyycatladyy

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, August 31^st, 2014.