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School on wheel...!
With the advance mobility in day-to-day life, did you ever give a thought to mobile school? Well, even if ever you pondered over the matter, you might have taken it to be some sort of an entertainment provider. However, this mobility is, as usual not for the sake of convenience, but on the contrary, it is hard — but unique — initiative towards making things easier for those who are living under tough circumstances in the village or somewhere in the streets of Lahore. The step taken by Godh a Pakistan-based volunteer organisation — started in 1999 — is trying to educate the otherwise neglected children who are deprived of education.
Taking out time from their eight to ten schedules of garbage picking, begging and so on, these children — in the age group 5 to 18 years — assemble together to study during the midday. “I love to study, but I have to work for helping my parents at home,” says Imran, who is a rag picker. They do not have a choice. He adds, “Our parents allow us to study during mid day only”.
Godh has been able to influence others too. Children of people leading nomadic lives also attend these schools. However, bringing them to come and avail the benefit of the mobile school is not an easy task. Children — specially their parents — have to be convinced over and over again. “It is not easy to locate and collect the gypsy kids who are moving from one place to another. That is why we ask them to promise us of not moving at least for three years”, says Mr Nazir Ahmed, Executive Director of Godh.
This school, however, is not the typical school building that we get to see often, with state-of-the-art facilities — even though it can’t be denied that care has been taken to give them all possible help. School here is just a room with four wooden walls, full of eager children studying under the guidance of the volunteering teachers. “Our volunteers are our major strength,” says Mr Ahmed. Although there is one teacher per school, another might be hired if the number exceeds beyond 40. The students are trained basic things like English, Urdu, Maths, Social Science and Islamiyat.
Another initiation of this one-of-a-kind programme to educate the children has been to educate the gypsy girls. Under this project, the girls also get vocational training apart from education, since they are the ones who, usually, perform in the festivals and other celebrations. These girls are specially taught by female teachers. “Apart from the girls many married women also attend our school,” says Mr Ahmed.
The programme also works in remote and rural areas, where there are many illiterate children. There are about 40 mobile schools in these areas. Mr Ahmad explains, “After attending our classes, some of the children were so motivated that they joined regular schools. We ask some of our individual donors to get them admitted and pay for them.”
“The idea came to our mind when we were a part of the global march started by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (save the childhood movement) in 1998,” says Mr Ahmed. He further adds, “We were inspired to work for the children, who have seen many tough times in their lives.” Global March, a initiative of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a global non governmental organization (NGO), is a march featuring the underprivileged children to march forward through 140 countries of the world and raise and bring the crucial issues of child rights before the government.
“Great work requires great and persistent effort for a long time. Neither need we trouble ourselves, if a few fail. It is in the nature of things that many should fall, that troubles should come, that tremendous difficulties should arise, that selfishness and all the other devils in the human heart should struggle hard, when they are about to be driven out by the fire of spirituality.” —- Swami Vivekananda
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