An oasis of knowledge in the midst of a garbage dump

Al-Khair Welfare Trust Campus II educates the children of Jam Chakro

KARACHI: Tiny feet tread a treacherous path. Dressed in ragged clothes, some barefoot, they navigate around heaps of burning garbage and rotting refuse to find a ray of hope in the garbage dump they call home. For the children of Kachra Kundi, a landfill site situated in the outskirts of Karachi, their beacon of hope is the Idara Al-Khair Welfare Society Campus II.

The school is a ray of hope for the 1,000 families living in the two villages - Umar Goth and Ismail Goth - in Jam Chakro.

The path to the school involves children making their way through piles of burning garbage. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/ EXPRESS

Following a path forged between piles of garbage in Umar Goth, amid the smoke and stench of burning waste along the route, the children end up at a nine-room school that has been working to educate the children of the area for the last 18 years.



Scavenging is the main source of income in Kachra Kundi - men, women and children as young as three years old sift through waste to find items worth selling. They scavenge for steel, brass and iron from the piles of trash throughout the day and sell it to the nearest truck weighing scales that pays them according to the weight of their findings. Each family earns between Rs200 to Rs300 per day.

 

The children walk to school everyday, some of them barefoot. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

"We go to their makeshift houses and advise them to educate their children," said the school's incharge, Muhammad Kashif, adding that their standard of living is so low that the residents of Kachra Kundi refuse to send their offspring to school despite the students having been given free textbooks, notebooks, school bags, stationery and a meal a day.

The school runs from 7:30am till 1pm and the trust also provides pick and drop services to staff from the villages.



The residents live in makeshift houses made of bamboo sticks and cloth and do not have electricity or water. The school, however, has a generator and also purchases water tankers.

The school is the only structure to have electricity and water for miles. It has its own generator and purchases water tankers. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/ EXPRESS

"We do not charge the students a single rupee - the trust bears all the expenses, from the teachers' salary to the fuel used for generator," explained Kashif. He said seven teachers coming from the city are provided pick and drop services as is the single teacher who resides in Umar Goth.

The Idara Al-Khair Welfare Society also has a campus on Surjani Town Link Road, where they send students for secondary classes because the Kachra Kundi campus is just for preparatory and primary classes.

The children learn basic English, Urdu and Math at the school. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/ EXPRESS

"We are just trying to teach them basic English, Urdu and maths and etiquette and manners," said a teacher, Mehak Kanwal, who has been teaching at the school for three months and comes from Surjani Town.

There are 300 students enrolled at the school. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/ EXPRESS

It is quite difficult to make the residents understand the importance of sending their children to school, lamented Kashif. He added that many parents question why they would send their children to study and 'waste time on education' when they could spend the same five hours picking garbage and earning money.



Kashif, who has been affiliated with the school's Kachra Kundi campus for the last three years, also said that the school has made a difference in the people's lives. "They have started sending their children [to school] and the enrolment of 300 students shows that while the locals do not want to abandon their way of earning a living, they do want their kids to study at least the basics," he said.

Of the class of 71 students, a majority have big dreams - they want to be doctors, teachers or police officers - but none want to abandon scavenging.

The students sit on red and black woven mats at school, most boys wearing shalwar kameez and girls attired in traditional Sindhi and Balochi clothes. Umair, who has been studying for the last six months, was pleased to have learnt to write the alphabet in English, he shared while writing the letter C on the blackboard.

The children go home during their lunch break and are summoned back by this young boy who rings a gong signalling their break is over. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

Six-year-old Sahiba, while shrouding half her face with her dupatta, shyly said she feels happy when she wakes up early in the morning and walks to school. "I want to teach the children in my village just like my class teacher does," said the young girl, who also scavenges through garbage after school.

Another student, Rahim, who is the eldest son in his house, wants to help his parents move out of the village and live a better life through education.

Only nine students have completed their matriculation from the school in 18 years. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/ EXPRESS

Only nine students from the village have completed their matriculation from the school in the last 18 years. Of these students, some boys have their own grocery shops in Umar Goth and nearby villages and few of them go to the city to work as labourers at factories. The girls who completed their matriculation from the school live in the village and still work as scavengers.