KARACHI, June 26: Speakers at a function on Sunday stressed that a nation could not progress in true sense unless it gave due importance to education. They were speaking at an Awareness and Fund raising session organized by the Manzil Educational Organization (MEO), a non-governmental organization, working in the field of education and being run exclusively by the youth.
They said that though it was primarily the government’s duty to provide education to the masses, the task was so huge that the civil society organizations would have to come forward and join hands so that more people could become literate.
The US consul-general Douglas C. Rohn, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said that the literacy level in Pakistan was very low and a lot was needed to be done.
He said that though the government was doing what it could, it was nice to know that the civil society was also trying to play its part in this sector.
The US diplomat, who had visited the schools being run by the NGO a few days back, said that he was impressed with the quality of education being provided at those schools, which were located in a slum alongside a railway line.
He said that the students looked confident, and majority of them understood and spoke English.
Mr Rohn said if an organization was working efficiently and worked transparently, funding was not a problem as a large number of people were ready to donate, only thing they wanted to ensure was that their money was being utilized properly for the purpose it was given.
The US diplomat said that the people here followed Islamic traditions which stressed the people with resources to provide assistance to the needy, now it was time that the professionals should also come forward and pool in their skills by giving their time for the good causes.
Earlier, MEO’s Shazia Mirza said that the NGO was formed nearly three years back and started working in one rented room and with a few students in Reiti Line, behind the Bath Island, along the railway tracks. The concept was so liked that within months more rooms had to be rented as over 450 children turned up for enrolment, but owing to paucity of funds only 200 had been registered in the two schools.
She said that expenses per child per month were around Rs250. There were six teachers and around 22 full time volunteers, majority of them students in professional institutes, working for the NGO.
Ms Mirza said that the NGO did not accept donations. However, it marketed products, such as cards made by the students, coffee mugs, etc and also organized fundraisers to support its educational programme. It would also be approaching the corporate sector to get sponsorships for the students or the schools.
