NEW STUDENTS
HEALTHY MEAL
COMMUNITY CENTRE
Update on the
Chak Jalal Din Project
We are excited to report that our group of thirty children from the community attending Station schools 1 and 2, Rawalpindi have all passed their final exams and are promoted to their next grades. We now have 1 child in grade 8, four in grade 7, 3 in grade 6 and 20 children in grades 1-4. All children are doing well and were to start school in March but due to COVID-19 have been delayed till mid July. The children although not going to school are still attending the after-school program. Every child has a scheduled time to attend to ensure that not more than 4 children are gathered and are sitting separated from each other. A temperature scanner, hand sanitizers and masks are provided. Both children and teachers are educated on protecting against CoVID-19.
Addition of 30 New Children
Addition of 30 New Children
A day school has been initiated for pre-Kindergarten classes in preparation for formal English medium school admissions in 2021. Our new group of 30 children, ages 3 – 5 have been selected from the poorest, most deserving families. Ms. Priscilla Nasir has been hired to head the program.
Here are some of the new children added to the program to start school in 2021. Yeshua sitting on the chair is a little older than the other kids. He has been unable to walk due to polio since he was a baby. Before joining the
program he spent his days sitting on the side streets 3
playing in the mud. Nobody is more excited than him to be part of this group!
Update on the Community Centre
The main structure of the community centre is complete, flooring and doors, windows, and window grill installations are underway.
Bathrooms, Paint, lights, fans and furniture are next. We hope to fully complete the Centre before the end of this year and have it fully functional for 2021. This is a big project and I thank all our donors for their ongoing support. There is still opportunity to fund a memory plaque at a $500 donation for family or friend to go on a main wall in the
Centre.
Visit To Pakistan
My sister and I traveled to Islamabad early March to monitor the overall project, more specifically document the progress made with the children, outline next steps for the community centre and review the financial record keeping.
While in Pakistan we spent time with the children doing various academic activities and identified the need for improved English vocabulary. Getting individual, age appropriate dictionaries, was the perfect answer! Each child was given a dictionary of their own and asked that while they were off school due to CoVID-19, they would learn 5 new words daily.
The community centre, although not yet completed, is already in use! The children did a beautiful musical and oratory presentation in the main hall while the staff hosted a delicious meal on the top floor.
Providing Relief
Unfortunately, during our visit Pakistan’s airspace was closed due
to CoVID-19 and we were unable to travel back as planned and spent an additional 4 weeks there.
Having been delayed gave us a first-hand opportunity to witness the suffering of the poor slum communities due to the COVID-19 city lockdown. Many families had no food as the only person working was making daily wages by collecting scrap, working as a labourer or as a street vendor. Open hands Global was able to provide for 150 families with a full month of food rations and many more with smaller food donations. The need is ongoing and may last for another several months. If you want to stand in the gap for these families, please do not
hesitate to contact us.
Gifts
The US team brought solar panel lanterns for each child to enable them to study during frequent power outages in their community. The children were enthused to get their own personal lantern and eager to show their family and use it. The lanterns were purchased from another non-profit organization, LuminAid.
The Canadian team brought dolls for the girls provided by Susan and an outfit for
every child by another generous donor
Art Initiative
A new partnership has been developed with Asher, a renowned artist and founder of Sidhu Galleries in Islamabad. His commitment is to host monthly paint classes for the children and identify and groom potential artists. What an awesome opportunity for our children to experience such a rich artistic environment!
Children enjoy their first painting class!
New Site –
Brick Kiln (Bhatta) Worker Community
Brick kiln workers of Pakistan are a community that has suffered enslavement for generations and are entrapped in a perpetual cycle of debt taken out by their fathers and grandfathers. All brick molders come from marginalized families, communities, and social groups. One-third of those enslaved are children who are forced to work hours that are more than those of an adult and they can sometimes work overnight like slaves to help pay the debt of their parents. The practice of bonded labor and employment of children in brick kilns is against the law in Pakistan however Pakistan continues to rank amongst the worst for child labor globally. In this industry, children and women are never on the pay roll but go as helpers for the male head of the family that
leads to their exploitation, financially and physically.
A Chance for Change
Brick kilns are like prisons for workers where heavy physical work and awkward working postures and manual handling of material can cause heat strokes, hand burns, a variety of musculoskeletal disorders and discomforts leading to significant morbidity.
Since majority of brick kilns in Pakistan use wood and coal for brick baking, the workers are also exposed to high levels of dust and smoke leading to respiratory illnesses and symptoms. Studies show that younger children are more prone to the health problems due to this kind of work.
Open Hands Global is committed to making a difference in kiln worker communities. We have initiated work in the kiln community of Kadlathia village. This is a catholic community, twenty Kilometers from Lahore and is home to 117 families. Almost all men of the village work on brick kilns and bring their wives and children to help. Almost 99% of the adults in this village are illiterate.
Our primary objective is to duplicate what we have learnt from working in the slum communities and bring generational changes to this community by prioritizing quality education for the children. To this end we have already hired a program coordinator, Adeem Saleem, a van driver, Sonu and an after school program teacher, Ms. Kitty Fernandez.
A local private English medium school, Rumi Academy has been identified that will accept admissions for 30 children from this community.
We are now doing the needs assessment and aptitude tests in the community to select our first batch of 30 children. The after school space has been rented close to the community and is being set up for the after school activities.
A van will be purchased end of June 2020 in order to transport children to and from school that are
The time is always right to do what is right.
- Martin Luther King, Jr
To Our Generous Donors,
The positive changes that are happening in these marginalized communities are all possible because of you and your generous support. You are making a difference in the lives of these children and the effects will last for generations to come. From the bottom of our
hearts, THANK YOU!
