“Literacy is a right, not a privilege,” says Nuzhat Ahmad, who spoke at our first International Dinner. “If I got a chance, others should too.” Nuzhat received an education in rural Pakistan, where as many as 10 million children will never have the chance to go to school. She's now a physician in Philadelphia. Her visionary grandmother sold her own wedding jewelry to make sure Nuzhat’s father got an education. Then she forbade Nuzhat’s father from marrying Nuzhat off until Nuzhat finished school. Nuzhat's family runs a series of schools in rural Pakistan and after 9/11 when WTB couldn't find an educational program in Afghanistan, it found this educational program in Pakistan through a WTB council member. WTB raised more than $13,000 for a new school through Ibtida (meaning “a beginning”), run by Nuzhat's family. The school in Mansehra now bears a plaque saying “Constructed by Women Transcending Boundaries, Syracuse, New York”! The 2005 earthquakes leveled many schools in the area but a structural engineer has pronounced this school safe, with only minimal damage.
New Programs in 2006 Nuzhat reports that Ibtida has adopted a cluster of three girls' schools in rural Sindh. The schools were struggling, but Nuzhat says they saw the deep commitment of the community to educate its children. Nearly 200 girls were enrolled. Ibtida has hired four new teachers and reduced the student-teacher racto and done more teacher training. One of the original Ibtida schools, the Nilore Junior School has progressed to Grade Eight. A science lab is being set up. Ibtida is hoping to start pen-pal-type correspondence between these children and U.S .children. It takes only $45 to educate a child for a year through Ibtida. If you’d like to make a difference in a child’s life, here’s how to donate. To read more about the exciting work of Ibtida, click here. |
