From a group of seven school children to GRACE Association Pakistan (15 years of institutional development). - Browse : Page 1 | Page 2

The story of the Grace Association begins in February 1992, a time when the people of a remote village in the Muntazarabad District of Skardu in the Northern Areas of Pakistan were living in absolute isolation from the rest of the world. Individual and collective efforts were limited to immediate survival without any concept of socioeconomic improvements and development. Subsistence agriculture was their only hope of earning their bread and butter. Production was extremely low due to water shortages, crop diseases and antiquated farming technologies. Conflicts over the use of scarce natural resources were a routine occurrence, while they were accustomed to living in utter poverty, ignorance and illiteracy. The influential few had complete control over the resources, while many of the poorer inhabitants were deprived of their rights to basic necessities.

Community Sharing Common Goals

Communities had poor access to education and other socio-economic services, while the social status of the women meant they were treated like animals with the burden of all productive and reproductive responsibilities. Education was not a priority, while only a few families with some form of exposure to the outside world educated their male children. As a whole, communities were not aware of the idea of “a right” let alone the rights of women and other vulnerable groups like the girl child. Educating a girl was deemed to be sinful, and because survival itself was the foremost priority for these communities, children were the main source of a families’ living. When not laboring for the family, male children were sent to the main town of Skardu to work. Women had a very high fertility rate, giving birth from 12 to 16 children during their lifetimes. The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Mother Mortality Rate (MMR) and the Child Mortality Rates were very high, as they lacked access to health facilities and there was no concept of mother and child health care, disease control, prevention or curative schemes. Access to clean drinking water and sanitation services was nonexistent, resulting in both acute and chronic water born diseases causing a large number of deaths at any one time.

At this time, only seven children from Muntazarabad region were attending a distant government middle school. Aggrieved at the small number of their class, the students decided to motivate parents to send their children to school and resolved to stand up for children’s’ rights to literacy and education. They went door to door to sensitize parents about the importance of education for their children and families. A great deal of criticism and humiliation followed, particularly from influential religious leaders, so the initial results were not promising. However, determined and continuous effort bore its fruits and the number of school-going children rose to 40 in February 1993. This motivated parents and a trend towards educating boys was eventually developed. As a result, the initial group of 7 students brought together all school-going children and established the ‘Waliul Asr Students Organization’ (WASO) to inculcate the importance and need for education in a formal and systematic manner. While WASO worked to increase children’s’ access to education, the right of the girl child was at the heart of all interventions.

Cooperative learning : from top to bottom

Their first initiative was the establishment of the ‘Al-Zehra Girls School of Kawardu’ in a small room belonging to a community member, and was the first step ever taken towards providing basic education for girls in the history of this remote valley of 10,000 people. During the first year, 2 girls were enrolled. The entire community - its elders in particular - resisted this change in the discriminating traditional and cultural norms. Despite these hostilities, WASO continued its mission and by the 3rd year, enrollment at the school increased to 22 pupils. They also established a book bank and collected textbooks from graduating students and then re-distribute them to other needy pupils. WASO also introduced a highly innovative teaching methodology based on systemic cooperative learning, where the students of each of the higher classes had the responsibility of teaching the students at the lower class and so on.

Next - Page 2 - From WASO to WAFA (Waliul Asr Falahi Anjuman -1995)