International fame: Madonna, Chinoy’s efforts helped

KARACHI:

The Dream Model Street School rose to international fame when Bachal was introduced to Madonna by Oscar award-winning documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.

Chinoy’s documentary on the street school, titled ‘Humaira: The Dream Catcher’, was exclusively screened at the celebrity’s live concert in London on June 1, 2013. Crowd-funding sparked off when Madonna called up Bachal on stage during her concert and asked the audience to help contribute to the building of a new and bigger school in Mawach Goth.

Madonna personally committed to the funding through her Ray of Light Foundation if the viewers funded the first floor - a precondition that has been achieved. In less than a month, the school has raised the required amount of $57,648 for the construction of the first floor via Catapult- a US-based organisation working with the objective of advancing funds collected as donations to better the lives of girls and women around the globe. The school’s building was inaugurated on June 5 by the Engro Vopak Terminal Limited CEO Sheikh Imranul Haque. The project received funding by the company in 2009 after another documentary, titled ‘A small dream’, was prepared on Bachal.

“After watching a small dream documentary, I cried for 15 minutes straight,” Bachal said. “I, for the first time, understood the real impact of my work. I had not thought about its wider repercussions. I just wanted no child to die due to his mother’s lack of knowledge.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2013.