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KARACHI: "We have no other option but to provide education and schooling facilities to the rural masses and we have set ourselves a target of providing such opportunities to about 100,000 children across Sindh by 2020", Zahid Saeed, a leading businessman and chief executive officer of Green Crescent Trust (GCT), expressed his resolve, while talking to the media here.
Zahid further said, "The progress GCT has made during the last 15 years has given us a launching pad to accelerate the mission to educate children in the underprivileged areas. The expansion of GCT education campaign will be steady and we will have another 10,000 to 20,000 students completing their school education."
Over the years GCT has developed a network of 50 schools and 400 teachers educating more than 7,000 students. These students also comprise of 42 per cent female students. The trust has a phenomenal 1:18 student-teacher ratio which provides for personalised learning experience for the children.
Operating in the deprived and remote areas of Sindh the trust has a unique model for community involvement and ownership. "Community ownership has been our forte," asserted Tanveer Ahmed Magoon, managing trustee of GCT and chairman, Shafi Group of Companies. He narrated how his associates and teachers would go to each community and spend time with them to earn their trust and patronage. "Our staff sometimes spent as much as two to three months at a village to get the community approval and win them to the cause," describes Tanveer.
In a recent case of community involvement, the villagers of Sohrab Khan Goth donated a piece of land measuring 1,200 square yards to GCT for setting up a school. They were so eager to see their children going to the school that the trust had to build thatch-hut classrooms within no time and had about a hundred children admitted on the first day.
In these troubled times, the efforts of social sector organisations are a source of great hope for the future. It is the need of the hour that the Government, Corporate sector and Individual Philanthropists support the Green Crescent Trust in serving the underprivileged masses and enable the poor children to get free or affordable education to make them good citizens of tomorrow, productive and responsible, emphasised the GCT trustees. "There is no other way to build a better, prosperous and secure tomorrow for Pakistan" said the speakers. -PPI
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