The Garage School

Mission Statement

The Garage School is committed to providing a useful education to under-privileged children around the world, creating social capacity and empowerment in the Karachi. We hope to form a socially, financially and environmentally self-sustaining model that is accessible to many, so that humanitarian and individual development may follow a sustainable path.

Background

The concept of the Garage School (TGS) was breathing in the founder’s mind, Mrs. Shabina Mustafa, as her late husband always had a vision for free education to the underprivileged. This was given a final thrust when her maid’s daughter was refused admission in a local school. Mrs. Mustafa took upon her to teach the maid’s daughter and when children from the maid’s neighbourhood found out about an open school in her garage, 13 more came in the next day.

The first classroom session was held in November 1999 in Mrs. Mustafa’s small garage and since then there has been no turning back. Today we have over 170 students!

TGS is formally registered as a project under the Safi Benevolent Trust (SBT). In the beginning of the year 2007, TGS has successfully opened another branch in Neelum Colony, where a large portion of the target population resides.

The levels of literacy in Pakistan are quite low. Projects like the Garage School concentrates on putting children (especially girls) from illiterate families into school so they may successfully integrate into modern schooling. Although SBT has successfully opened up a new branch of The Garage School in Neelum Colony, there is still much more work that needs to be done with hundreds of thousands more children in need of a proper education. Therefore The Garage School is constantly needing help to acquire more space.

What we do

The Garage School (TGS) is committed to providing quality useful education to underprivileged children from Neelum Colony and Shah Rasool Colony, aiming to create social capacity and empowerment. We hope to form a socially, financially and environmentally self sustaining model which shall be accessible to many, with the hope that humanity and individual development will follow a sustained path.

TGS includes children from various ethnic backgrounds such as Muslims, Christians, Sikh and Hindus. All these children are treated equally and are constantly reinforced with such values so that they can continue to live in the same neighbourhood with peace, respect and harmony.

The school provides nutrition and food for all the children on a regular basis. This includes milk once a week, fruits/fruit juices twice a week, boiled eggs and other vitamin supplements as and when feasible. These areas have no clean water as a result these children fall sick every day. Therefore, we have a mineral water dispenser in the school to provide clean, safe and cold drinking water to the children. By focusing on a few, we hope to cater many.

Health and Hygiene

A healthy child will have a healthy mind. Therefore TGS conducts annual medical and oral examinations along with vaccinations for each student to ensure that they are healthy not only in mind but only in body.

One of the students, Happy Maxwell, was diagnosed with heart disease based on which doctors felt that he may not be able to live a long and healthy life. SBT had made arrangement to take the child to Chennai, India for a heart surgery. After two consecutive visits Happy has fully recovered and is now enjoying his three year old life playing and running around like other children his own age.

Education

Our school has a holistic view to education. Our students learn real and practical skills (handicrafts, salon training) on par with academic subjects so that such vocational training can provide structure and dependability to the children’s lives. Our student Anil Singh, who is now a student with Bahria College enrolled for the BBA program, helps us in administering the school.

This gives us immense support and we feel such avenues provide him the learning opportunities as he interacts with people from diverse backgrounds.

Within our curriculum, we also offer computer awareness courses, whereby older children are taught to operate basic applications of MS Office which enable the children to be familiarized with technology and may also assist them further when they go to higher classes.

To broaden their horizons we have maintained a library within the school, whereby children are encouraged to read and learn as this habit can be a constant source of information for life. The time tables are designed in a manner that each child has a time during the day to sit and read in the library.

Financial Independence

We try and involve as many families as possible into this system by providing a complete package; education to the children, health care, adult education, food/nutrition and vocational training. 10 of our students are currently enrolled to learn the skill of carpentry whereas 7 girls go to a well renowned beauty saloon for training. On girl, Asmat, wants to pursue nursing as a profession and is preparing for admissions whereas Anil is already a student of one of the leading business schools of Karachi.

We see in these children future leaders who would not also improve their lives but the lives of their generation to come. We believe that through education, impoverished people in these colonies can learn to live more prosperous and harmonious lives, not just in this generation but in generations to come. Our long term goal is to bring these families out of poverty, hoping that people benefiting from our work develop a culture of giving, so that small seeds of goodwill are planted to spread and self propagate.

Sponsorship Scheme

Mr Abbas Vawda introduced the idea of the SPONSORSHIP PROGRAME. His idea was to send these children to various schools for formal education as the garage school did not have many classes. He was the first one to sponsor 9 students who were admitted to Nasra school. From then till today 42 students have been sponsored to various schools.

Our long term goal for each of our students is to ensure that each student can stand independent financially to support self and family by acquiring the knowledge/skills to earn a respectable job. TGS is well on its ways to accomplish this outcome and following are some such examples:

1. Anil Singh, outstanding achiever, currently studying in one of the leading business schools of Karachi and assisting TGS with administrative work.

2. Seven students registered in St. Patrick’s Vocational school for which Toyota Indus Motors guarantees entry level jobs for them as soon as they graduate.

3. Six female students currently taking training at a renowned beauty saloon in Karachi as they are motivated to continue in this field professionally.

4. Asmat wants to pursue nursing for which she is currently preparing to enrol in a nursing school.

5. Nomeeta wants to be an air hostess.

6. Ten students are taking carpentry skills training, with an aim to pursue such for a profession.

Annual Events

The school hold many events on an annual basis such as Eid party for the children to enjoy and celebrate together as a family.

We take these children out on many educational visits which broaden their horizon and give them a feel of what is happening in the outside world.

We celebrated Independence Day on August 14 with vigour and enthusiasm.

Recently Milad, a religious event, was held where children from all ethnic backgrounds participated. Anil, belonging to Sikh religion, recited the religious recitation and received a standing ovation.

Our Teachers

Concurrent to administrating the school is the search for appropriate teachers. Diversity of views in education is important, therefore, we encourage volunteers along with full time paid teachers. This allows the children access to teachers with a wider range of knowledge and skills, and higher specificity. Such a diverse group of teachers also create a better working atmosphere so as to work happily and productively, creating a circle of senior members for the children to admire and learn from. More teachers also means that more students can be taught, forming better social learning for the kids and heightened sense of belonging within the school environment.

Tahira Rasheed, our full time teacher, has been with TGS since inception. She started working as a teacher’s aid but is now capable of not only being a class teacher and looking after an entire class but also assists Mrs. Mustafa in the day to day administration of the school. She holds an intermediate college degree and has been improving herself through various teacher training courses which TGS bears expenses of so that she may acquire better teaching skills. Her whole family is realizing the impact of “Education” and hence her brother is studying in D.A College, her sister through TGS is in beauty salon and her younger sister is getting the grooming of becoming a teacher.

Born To Be a Teacher

We have volunteers working with us who teach these students various subjects as specified in the schedule. Along with them we have a stream of students from renowned schools spending time with the children and teaching them arts and crafts. A former nun also comes to teach phonics to the nursery class. This interaction gives them better exposure.Our continuation strategy is to provide new teachers on-the-job training. Mrs. Mustafa spends time with new appointees to teach them ways in which these children can adapt to the teachings. Furthermore, Tahira also conducts training classes for new appointed teachers based on her experience of 8 years and the external trainings she has received so far.

Latest Project: Upgrading 2 slum localities

The biggest difficulty these children face is the lack of guidance and advice in their lives, as most of these children don’t have a role model to follow. A lot of them look of to Mrs. Mustafa as a role model and seek guidance from her on various matters.

The children who come to the school are either residing in Neelum colony or Shah Rasool Colony. It is felt that if parents of these children had education or at least awareness of importance of education, they would have been able to encourage and support their children to focus on learning and grooming rather than doing odd jobs or looking after younger siblings while both parents are out to work.

These children are not provided with proper attention at home and this discourages them to work diligently towards attaining better grades in school. Therefore, TGS has taken up a project of adult literacy whereby monthly meetings are held with parents of all students to make them realize the importance of health and hygiene and try and convert them to lead a proper cleaner life.

Recycling Campaign - “Selling to Save”

Providing dustbins for each house along being developed in the school as a project in the arts and crafts class.

Providing large drums to be utilized as waste bins in neighbourhood streets and alleys.

TGS is providing stitched cloth bags to these families for proper disposal of glass, paper and tin which would be collected and recycled. Visiting personally to their home and providing cloth bags for recycling purposes.

Saving Project leading to Banking:

Motivate children to save their pocket money and put in the ‘Piggy Bank’ to help them save to meet their future needs.

Presently saving to deposit amount in the bank.

Reintroduce the concept of mobile banks to financial institutions
After talking to them it was found that an average household has about 8 to 10 people living, mostly in one room which has a rental cost of Rs 1500 to Rs. 2500. What is more shocking is that an average household has usually one breadwinner earning about a maximum of Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 10,000. One wonders how families can survive in such inadequate resources. To top that either or both parents are addicted to some form of drug/ cigarette or have the habit of taking gutka/ beetle nut with tobacco. Approximately Rs.300 per month is spent on each of these habits which further reduce the probability for each family member to eat a square meal.

Moreover, the female children are generally provided lesser attention whereas childish whims of the male children are given priority. In many families, both parents work and therefore the oldest female child is assigned the responsibility of looking after all her younger siblings. This way, she will be denied all rights to proper education.

Additional in a locality like Clifton, no proper schools/colleges are present especially for girls. Private schools are very expensive and therefore unaffordable by these families. If these girls were given the opportunity to learn, we could have utilized them as teachers giving them proper training in which way they could have financially contributed towards the household expenses.

As a step towards a cleaner living environment, TGS has started asking these students to bring used empty oil cans (tin) from their homes. The school is teaching them to make dustbins out of them. Newspapers are used to wrap them and students are asked to draw, cut and past shapes and animals on them for beautification. This served the dual purpose of learning arts and craft as well as promoting hygiene. Than each child takes the dustbin home and ensures that all garbage in thrown into the bin to keep their homes clean.

Introduction of Adult Literacy Classes

In association with Literacy Support Centre

Includes courses for parents and older siblings such as:
3 months Urdu course
Followed by 4 to 6 months English course
Children who are 12 + will complete Grade 10 schooling (matriculate) in 4 years on a private basis.
English conversational classes for adults
Classes are held five times a week from 4 pm to 10 pm

Effective 01st August 08, two more classes introduced:

+ Carpentry
+ Music Classes are being held in the newly acquired one apartment.

66 bicycles were distributed courtesy Mobilink.

Discussing family issues

Once the homes are clean, the next step is to ensure that the neighbourhood is clean through collective efforts of all houses within an area. The school will arrange to distribute one big drum/container within 10 families to be used as a dustbin and assign responsibility to one individual from those 10 families to ensure that all garbage is disposed in the drum/container. This way the person will ensure that each house throws the garbage in the drum/container and not anywhere outside so that lanes can be kept clean and eventually the whole colony will benefit from individual efforts. This act will not only beautify the area but more importantly will protect residents from diseases which these children frequently catch.

The school will also make an arrangement whereby a doctor visits these families on a regular basis to talk about general health and family planning. A majority of the students are unable to attend school regular because of the constant illness they face either through some kind of viral infection or even more serious diseases. This causes them to miss school and hence they are left behind quite often. In order to overcome this problem, it is felt that the most pressing issue faced by these colonies is health and hygiene. We feel that a healthy child is a healthy mind.

The following are three case studies which will help you understand the conditions these children live in:

1. Case study

Anil Singh, Sunil Singh and Balbeer Singh are three brother who came to us in our first batch of 13. They belong to a Sikh background. They reside in Neelum colony where the entire family of over 22 people live in a three story house. These are children who have become our yardstick to measure improvement and success. Anil has started college where as the other two are studying in high school. Both Anil and Balbeer help around in the day to day administration of the school Balbeer has been a tremendous help in preparation and distribution of the colourful dustbins. The entire family is well groomed and realize the importance of education.

2. Case study

Sagar is a 7 year old boy who has started school with us. His mother is addicted to beetle nut/ pan with tobacco and has lost almost all her teeth due to this. She may be on the verge of mouth cancer. They are a family of 5 and by constantly counselling the mother, Mrs. Mustafa has achieved the target of altering her habit of chewing beetle nut with a hope that she would leave it altogether on day.

3. Case study

Adnan is a 12 student studying in class 6. He has 5 siblings, all studying in TGS. Although his mother works as maid, the father Abdul Aziz was jobless for a very long time. Moreover, his addiction to cigarettes costs approximately Rs. 300 to the family each year. About six months ago the mother gave birth to another baby and all these children are surviving on the mother meagre salary of Rs. 4,000 per month. Looking at the scarcity this family faces, the father has been kept as a gatekeeper for the school now earning a salary of Rs. 4,500 per month.

The biggest casualty of this situation would be the daughter Mariam who recently turned 14 and is studying is class 8. Since the mother has to go out to earn a living, Mariam will be forced to sit home and look after the youngest one. We plan to save this girl’s future by grooming her in our school in a manner in which she is able to become a teacher on day.

The basic idea behind upgrading the two colonies is for the next generation to live with a brighter, healthier and respectable future. The only way this can be achieved is by conducting counselling sessions on a regular basis with parents. Strong brainwashing will probably help them see the damage they are causing to their children’s life by not only improving themselves but also discouraging the children to improve. We hope that our adult literacy project will serve even better results and help in improving if not this generation than the generations to come.

Philosophy

Educate for life is more than just a person, or a group of people; it is a vision and a dream that we are endeavoring to bring to life through all of the people that work with us and those of the public wanting to get involved. The way in which the schools are utilized will be an expression of the dynamism and adaptability of our vision in our aim to benefit as many people as possible.

Growth

Our philosophy is one of growth and development of humanity, and the human conscience. We wish to build the Garage School because we believe that the children of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Through education, impoverished people in the world can learn to live more prosperous and harmonious lives, not just in this generation but in generations to come. Our school aims to bring communities out of poverty hope that the people benefiting from our work develop a culture of giving, so that small seeds of good-will planted can spread and self-propagate.

Education opens doors for people that would otherwise remain sealed, or not even recognized and eventually turning them into better “Human Beings”

Our children can now dare to dream.

Thank you!