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Success Story
Denied an education
herself, one local woman
works tirelessly for her
local school with USAID
support
Gul’s Girls: Educating the Girls of Pakistan
Photo: RISE
A student reads to Gul after school in
Dharian Bambian.
“I don’t want our daughters
to have the kind of lives
we had. I want them to be
educated and make their
own decisions,” said Gul
Laila, a parent and volunteer
at the local school in Dharian
Bambian, Pakistan.
Gul Laila, a resident of Dharian Bambian, Pakistan, can’t read or write, but
she still arrives at the local school early every morning. Before heading
off to her job as a domestic worker, she stops by the school to ensure all
the teachers have shown up for work. Faculty absenteeism has no longer
been an issue since the School Management Committee elected Laila as
its chairwoman.
Denied an education herself, Laila now works tirelessly to make sure that
her daughters and all the other girls of this remote village in Pakistan’s
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) region have access to school.
“When I was growing up, we girls were often discriminated against,” Laila
said. “Our parents sent our brothers to school, while asking us to cook
for them and clean their uniforms. I don’t want our daughters to have the
kind of lives we had. I want them to be educated and make their own
decisions.”
An already a bad situation for girls’ education in AJK was exacerbated
when the 2005 earthquake struck during school hours, killing nearly
14,000 children and sowing fear into parents’ minds. One silver lining of
the tragedy, however, was the unprecedented permission given to USAID
to operate in the area. For the first time ever, USAID began a school
reconstruction program in the region. The USAID project organized a
new management committee to help improve the school near Laila’s
home. Laila, a gregarious widow, was the natural choice to head it. The
establishment of school management committees is one way USAID
works with local communities to improve the quality of instruction and
learning. Through training of school teachers in interactive, activity-based
methodologies, the program encourages communities to invest in their
school system.
“Laila took great interest in her daughters’ education,” said Tahira Khan,
head teacher at the school. “Now her interest extends to all the girls in our
community. We call them ‘Gul’s Girls’.”
Laila and Khan are a source of inspiration for all the women who have
joined the committee. Mothers, teachers, a university student, and even
Laila’s aged mother-in-law now form the ranks of those committed to
providing an improved education to the girls of their small village.
Together, Laila and Khan have addressed fundamental issues such as
enrollment, nearly doubling the number of girls from 40 to almost 80
despite reluctance from some men in the community.
Khan said that in all her years of teaching, she has never seen a
committee chairperson as dynamic as Laila. “I am really thankful to her for
sharing my burden,” Khan said. “I could not fight on so many fronts alone.
Together we have been able to make real progress on behalf of education
in our community.”
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