In recognition of reaching such a significant milestone, a special celebration was held following the April 19 anniversary date, with Nisar Abbas, President, Electronic Media, presiding. Khadim Hussain, Chief Executive GRACE Association Pakistan, thanked Dr Uzma Saleem, Principal of the Government Degree College for Women in Skardu for hosting the event at the college. Invited guests included teachers and students from 18 Access Program partner schools, parents, social workers, representatives from academia and the media, plus GRACE Volunteers.

The Access Students made their own unique contribution to the event, including debates on the public and private sector roles in promoting quality education and a short, comical drama on learning English in the English Access Program.

Mir Muhammad, an Access Program faculty member in Skardu, praised the efforts of the Program's first graduating class:

• These 80 male and female students, enrolled from disadvantage families from across Skardu, Baltistan, have achieved results beyond both my expectations and those of my colleagues.

Wazir Shamshad Hussain, Access Program Coordinator, said that this project is running in 45 countries around the world, and in Pakistan alone, 5000 Access students have been enrolled in all of the country's five provinces.

Khadim Hussain, GRACE Chief executive, said :

• The lack of opportunities within marginalized and disadvantage groups to learn English has been a major hindrance in young people being able to contribute fully to finding solutions to the challenges of modern society. For this reason, GRACE Association Pakistan launched this Program exactly a year ago. The aim was, and remains, to improve the comprehension, speaking, listening, and writing skills of our students. The Program is also designed to contribute to overall personal development in terms of character building, career counselling and confidence building. Lastly, we also help students familiarize themselves with other cultures so that they can avail themselves of international scholarship opportunities to advance their higher education.

Nisar Abbas, President of Electronic Media Baltistan and Correspondence Geo News Pakistan, expressed his own appreciation of GRACE Association's efforts to promote quality education in the region, and made a personal request for the Program to be expanded to include other parts of Skardu Baltistan.