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CARE lends a helping hand to underprivileged children

DUBAI - A presentation on Cooperation for Advancement, Rehabilitation and Education (CARE) was held at the Pakistan Sports and Recreation Centre here on Tuesday.

Organised by the Dubai Friends of CARE under the aegis of Pakistan Professionals Forum (PPF), the group's chairperson, Seema Aziz, presented a detailed slide show on CARE and requested support from the community - financial, moral and in the form of social services.

"We need educated people to come forward and reach out with a helping hand," said Seema, who is on a visit to Dubai to raise funds.

CARE is primarily engaged in providing education to the underprivileged communities of Pakistan. The group also builds and adopts government schools and manages them independently. At present, CARE is administering 35 schools for the Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore (MCL), has eight CARE schools, besides adopting 175 schools with a total of 80,000 students in all schools and over 600 trained and qualified teachers.

Elaborating on the status of CARE schools, Seema said that since its establishment in 1988 as a welfare trust, CARE has endeavoured to provide quality education to all.

"CARE's aim is nation building and by empowering our children with a solid education, we hope to make them productive members of society. We hope and pray that one day these children will help build a happier, more prosperous Pakistan," she added.

"The success of CARE schools belies the notion that the poor people in Pakistan are not interested in education even when facilities are made available."

Providing details about the schools, Seema recalled that the ‘adopted' schools were in a dilapidated state with no furniture and even lacked proper sewerage facilities.

"Education being imparted through these schools was very poor, with age-old teaching methods and teacher absenteeism was rampant. The schools lacked basic amenities such as clean drinking water, blackboards, chalks etc. Further, furniture available to both students and teachers was inadequate, and whatever was available was in a poor condition," she said.

Later, during the Q&A session, the apparently touched audience demanded further details. Elaborating, Seema said that to improve the standard of education in CARE schools, the group has hired qualified teachers to bring the student-teacher ratio to a manageable level and constructed additional classrooms.

"CARE charges fees only to those who can afford them so as to give students and parents a sense of participation. It also provides free books," she said. Lauding the efforts of the Pakistani community in Dubai, Seema said that at least one school was being run in Pakistan on the funds raised by the community here.

CARE depends mainly on funds provided by private donors, 99 per cent of which come from within Pakistan, while the remaining one per cent are donated by overseas donors.

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