Gilgit-Baltistan education initiative galvanises Karachi students

Students find creative ways to collect money to spread education in Gilgit-Baltistan

KARACHI: Karachi's Greenwich University students embarked on a donation drive to serve education in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).

The initiative which kicked off on January 12 has been undertaken to implement Inspire Initiative's education project in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Activities to collect donations include washing cars, serving food at local restaurants, arranging a movie screening on campus, and selling food and old books.

"Such activities are key in our goal to help underprivileged students and should be done on a routine basis,” said Navaid Jafri, a student at the varsity.

PHOTO: HARRIS JAVAID

Dr Farooqui, a senior-professor at Greenwich University who supervised donation drive  for the initiative, said educating the underprivileged was the best service to the nation .

"The efforts towards education especially in the northern areas is a cause of great motivation for me and my students,” said Farooqui.

The donation drive successfully collected Rs0.5 million which will be handed over to present director of Inspire Initiative Ayesha Farooqui.

"Education is the foremost and basic necessity for every individual and it's our responsibility to help those who are deprived of this necessity,” said Shehneez Saeed, a student part of the donation drive.

The Inspire journey started back in 2007 when British-Pakistani Bushra Farooqui visited Baltistan for the first time with a group of trekkers from the UK for a charity trek to K-2 Base Camp.

The initiative was funded by Bushra Farooqui and two other expats from the UK. The number of students soon grew to 360 girls within a span of three years.



Currently, 180 children, both girls and boys between the ages of four and 14 years, are enrolled at the two schools adopted by Inspire. The children are taught English, Urdu, mathematics, general knowledge, social studies, Islamiat and science. The ratio of female to male students is 50:50 and with these two schools, Inspire is catering to at least 70% of Sadpara valley’s primary school-going children, adds Farooqui.

Inspire covers all the costs, including salaries and training of teachers, school supplies, furniture, stationery, uniforms, bags and books. All the volunteers are Skardu-based and tend to the day-to-day operations of the school by liaising with the teachers and village education committee (VEC).