Back in Lahore.
We started the day with breakfast at Bhatiar's house and then we met up with the rest of the team at the Rising Sun academy. On the way we saw a little chicken butcher, so we stopped in...
Rising Sun is a school for the special needs children in and around the campus. They have almost 300 enrolled and they handle just about every need and every level of need. The interesting part of the there work is the very high teacher to student ratio. One can clearly believe it is because labor is cheap over here, but at the same time, one can also believe that it is because it is effective. They have made great strides with their work and the children seem to become quite adept. Those able to excel, but with physical disabilities are challenged to the greatest extent. Those who are not are taught both vocations and basic skills by which they can look after themselves. Again, they do quite a bit with out very much. They have a strong autism program, again very manual, but quite effective. I talked to them about linking with some of the specialist schools from the states and maybe doing exchanges of approach, if not people.
The second school we went to was the Aabroo school (aabroo.org). They have 8 buildings across the
city and work with 2500 students. They work with those children who can not afford anything else and who would not be going to school at all. They have been operating for 10 years now and though started in the headmistress' house, is now fully enclaved in purpose built buildings. When we visited, the power was off, but school was still operating as if nothing was different. They have battery backups that run a couple lights (and the tea boiler), and windows to keep things light. This building was running two shifts of school - and was able to thus deal with a great number of students.
The most fascinating part was that the schools, all within the slums, do outreach to the nomads who set up tents on the empty lots. If the children won't come into the school, which they often won't, the school sends vans with teachers out to the tent communities for half a day or so. They also have started funding the school by collecting "dry" trash from people's houses (in bags) and bringing it to a building near the school to separate for recycling. They are funding 30% of their budget with this.
Not only do they provide education, but uniforms, books, and meals. It is the full spectrum, because their philosophy is that the second 3 pieces are necessary for the first to happen properly.
From Aabroo we went to another school (the Rukhsana Association) that had also been started in
someone's house. This one was in the city, rather than the slum, but was still for disadvantaged kids with not enough money to even cover uniforms, and so they were given to the kids as well. We brought notebooks and pencils and got a great welcom from these kids. At Aabroo, they conducted most of the lessons in Urdu. At KB, most were conducted in English. I was astounded to see that when you looked at the kids, all lined up, they could be from any school in the US (OK, maybe not in NH, but at least in norther california). RA is now housed in 3 adjoining houses and treats 300.
After we were done with the RA visit, we went over to Ali's Dream Lounge for lunch and a smoke. The food was great and the company wonderful, but it really was too smokey for me. We lingered at the lounge until 5 and then went over to a healthClub for a tour and a movie. We saw Bol, which was nominated for an oscar (but did not win) last year and was a local product. It talked to but fundamentalism in pakistan and how honor killing is an accepted practice. It was a good movie, long, and controversial, but good. They even gave us popcorn. We had dinner in the restaurant there at the club and tried to sneak out as early as possible so I could prepare for tomorrow's sessions at NU/FAST.
We started the day with breakfast at Bhatiar's house and then we met up with the rest of the team at the Rising Sun academy. On the way we saw a little chicken butcher, so we stopped in...
Rising Sun is a school for the special needs children in and around the campus. They have almost 300 enrolled and they handle just about every need and every level of need. The interesting part of the there work is the very high teacher to student ratio. One can clearly believe it is because labor is cheap over here, but at the same time, one can also believe that it is because it is effective. They have made great strides with their work and the children seem to become quite adept. Those able to excel, but with physical disabilities are challenged to the greatest extent. Those who are not are taught both vocations and basic skills by which they can look after themselves. Again, they do quite a bit with out very much. They have a strong autism program, again very manual, but quite effective. I talked to them about linking with some of the specialist schools from the states and maybe doing exchanges of approach, if not people.
The second school we went to was the Aabroo school (aabroo.org). They have 8 buildings across the
city and work with 2500 students. They work with those children who can not afford anything else and who would not be going to school at all. They have been operating for 10 years now and though started in the headmistress' house, is now fully enclaved in purpose built buildings. When we visited, the power was off, but school was still operating as if nothing was different. They have battery backups that run a couple lights (and the tea boiler), and windows to keep things light. This building was running two shifts of school - and was able to thus deal with a great number of students. 
The most fascinating part was that the schools, all within the slums, do outreach to the nomads who set up tents on the empty lots. If the children won't come into the school, which they often won't, the school sends vans with teachers out to the tent communities for half a day or so. They also have started funding the school by collecting "dry" trash from people's houses (in bags) and bringing it to a building near the school to separate for recycling. They are funding 30% of their budget with this.
Not only do they provide education, but uniforms, books, and meals. It is the full spectrum, because their philosophy is that the second 3 pieces are necessary for the first to happen properly.
From Aabroo we went to another school (the Rukhsana Association) that had also been started in
someone's house. This one was in the city, rather than the slum, but was still for disadvantaged kids with not enough money to even cover uniforms, and so they were given to the kids as well. We brought notebooks and pencils and got a great welcom from these kids. At Aabroo, they conducted most of the lessons in Urdu. At KB, most were conducted in English. I was astounded to see that when you looked at the kids, all lined up, they could be from any school in the US (OK, maybe not in NH, but at least in norther california). RA is now housed in 3 adjoining houses and treats 300.
After we were done with the RA visit, we went over to Ali's Dream Lounge for lunch and a smoke. The food was great and the company wonderful, but it really was too smokey for me. We lingered at the lounge until 5 and then went over to a healthClub for a tour and a movie. We saw Bol, which was nominated for an oscar (but did not win) last year and was a local product. It talked to but fundamentalism in pakistan and how honor killing is an accepted practice. It was a good movie, long, and controversial, but good. They even gave us popcorn. We had dinner in the restaurant there at the club and tried to sneak out as early as possible so I could prepare for tomorrow's sessions at NU/FAST.
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