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. “We have no other option, otherwise the future of the young rural population of Sindh will go into decadence and we cannot afford it.”
Zahid further said, “The progress GCT has made during the last 15 years has given us a launch 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.”
The trust had its humble beginning in 1995 with 65 students and a single school. Over the years GCT developed a network of 50 schools and 400 teachers educating more than 7,000 students. Of these female students comprise 42 per cent. The trust has a phenomenal 1:18 student-teacher ratio which provides for personalized 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 organizations 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, emphasized the GCT trustees.
“There is no other way to build a better, prosperous and secure tomorrow for Pakistan” said the speakers.
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