KARACHI, Jan 18: To check rising incidence of incommunicable diseases in the city, educational facilities for girls were particularly stressed, besides awareness regarding right choice of available food, hygiene and cleanliness.

Health care experts, speaking at the annual prize distribution ceremony at the HOPE Home School, Bilal Colony, a local urban slum inhabited by factory workers and daily wage-earners, said inability of parents to send their children to formal schools owing to their meagre resources had enhanced need for a network of such institutions across the country.

According to the speakers, proper education through informal schools would not only help girls to learn reading and writing but also enhance their accessibility to varied sources of proper education regarding their health.

The school, a part of the chain of "Home Schools," initiated by the Health Oriented Preventive Education, an NGO comprising local doctors, was working in different slum areas of the city, besides Thatta and Gadap, was said to be an intervention to address the educational needs of the children.

Dr Mobina Agboatwala, HOPE Coordinator, said the school at Bilal Colony, opened in collaboration with P&G, besides accommodating some 35 children and providing them primary-level education, also offered an adult literacy centre and a secondary school for girls, mainly those drop outs who could not resume their education at government schools after fifth grade.

She claimed that 20 such schools, established in a span of two years, accommodated some 700 children, who were provided free-of-cost primary education. The teachers were said to be mainly belonging to the localities where the schools were operating, as Manzoor Colony, Zia Colony, Mujahid Colony and Hazara Colony, besides in Thatta and Gadap.

Ms Hans Peter Heiffen and Ms Adita D' Voncva were guests of honour on the occasion, who, while appreciating the keen interest expressed by women belonging to the lowest strata of the society in improving their living standards, stressed for maximum opportunities to promote adult literacy.-APP