New facility: For SOS kids, English won’t be a problem

English language laboratory established, to be fully functional by next week.

ISLAMABAD:

If English language skills were holding back children at the SOS Children’s Village Islamabad from competing in the real world, they won’t anymore.

The federal capital’s SOS Village, which is a part of the SOS Children’s Villages Pakistan, has established a state-of-the-art laboratory to provide English coaching classes to its 93 children. The SOS Children’s Villages Pakistan is a private social welfare organisation which provides a home and family environment for orphans and abandoned children.

The laboratory at the SOS Village was funded by the Small Grants and Ambassador’s Fund Programme of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The project grant for the English language lab has covered the expenditures for a fully-furnished laboratory room, 24 computers, networking equipment, Rosetta Stone English learning software and back-up electricity solution among other things, Naznin Murtaza, the chairperson of the SOS Children’s Village Islamabad, said.

“The most important thing in anybody’s life is education,” Murtaza said. “Our children are from disadvantaged backgrounds and they struggle with English. When they compete with other children their age for professional seats (at educational institutions or employment opportunities), they lose out.”

Most of the 93 children — 51 boys and 42 girls — at the Islamabad SOS Village are from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) who were displaced after the Kashmir Earthquake 2005, said Anjum Abid, a volunteer at the SOS Village and member of its administrative committee.

Murtaza hoped the English lab would help the students overcome their confidence barrier and language skills deficiency. She said the lab is waiting for computer hardware and will be fully functional by the end of next week.



The SOS Village, located on the outskirts of Islamabad in sector H-11 next to the Police Academy, was established in July 2011, the Village’s director Shama Khan said. In a short time, the Village has developed 11 houses, with 10 children and one “house mother” assigned to each home.

The Islamabad SOS Village employs 11 house mothers and 12 staff members, Murtaza said. She said the staff members and house mothers will also benefit from the English language laboratory.

The Village also has a 3-room school sponsored by the Headstart School System, which serves around 40 children ages 2-7. The older children attend school at the Islamabad Model Colleges in the city on the Village’s own expense, Murtaza said.

All children at the Village will learn English through the computerized software. The USAID grant also provides for three months’ salary for a manager for the lab.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2013.