KARACHI, Dec 15: In a society like ours, where most of the endeavours revolve around fulfilment of one’s own dreams, there still are people working relentlessly for the welfare of others. Such characters serve as beacons of light and source of inspiration in our society that is rapidly turning into a cluster of self-centred people.

Mrs Shabina Mustafa is one such selfless character, who has been running a charitable school in a one-room space. The school is better known as Garage School, 95 Clifton as the one-room space was basically a garage. The school was opened in 1991 with only one student, and now 82 students are enrolled in two shifts.

Due to the increasing number of students, Mrs Mustafa has now shifted the school to an apartment on a monthly rent of Rs30,000 in Neelum Colony, which was formally inaugurated by German Consul-General Kiderlen here on Thursday.

Imtiaz Rastgar, a social worker, has offered to pay one year’s rent, while some other companies are assisting in the provision of uniform, milk and biscuits, etc for the children.

Speaking to Dawn, the consul-general lauded these efforts and said that he had already extended support in this regard so as to encourage more such projects.According to Mrs Mustafa, after passing their primary level examination the students are admitted to different English medium schools and most of them are in the St Patrick’s Technical School at our expense. One of my students’ Anil Singh has been admitted to the Bahria College, she informed.

Mrs Mustafa informed that she had established a trust Safi Benevolent Trust, basically after the name of her husband, who was martyred during the 1971 war, but there was no regular source of income to meet the monthly expenditures amounting to Rs60,000.

She urged the well-off people to extend financial support by sponsoring the students and play their role in educating the poor children. A number of educationists, social workers were also present.