Discovery

www.thecitizensfoundation.org

Sanober. Asst Manager Volunteer and Alumni.

I: Hi Sanober, I am Katya, thanks for inviting me to the school. Please meet my colleagues, Arsalaan and Zhen. They were interested to visit it as well so I took them along.

Sanober: Hi, nice to meet you all. Lets go. The lecture at the school is starting at 10, so we have one hour to get there. It’s outside Lahore.

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In the car.

I: What kind of children are studying at schools your organization is running?

Sanober: Our schools are for children from villages. There are 6 of them around Lahore, but many more in Karachi. These are usually children from poor families. They study in the morning, then come back from classes and go to work to earn money for their families. They study only at classes, don’t have time for any homework. Teachers are giving them all material during classes.

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I: I applied for mentorship program for the secondary level children in Karachi, but didn’t take part as they needed mentors who know Urdu very well.

Sanober: yes, unfortunately it’s true. First language of our students is a regional one (Panjubi or Sindhi), then Urdu, and only then - English.

I: I see. What kind of activities are you doing with them during mentorship program?

Sanober: There are several milestones. First one - getting to know each other and ice-breaking with mentors. Second - goal-setting: discussion on who each of them was before joining the school, and who is he/she now, then - who they want to become after mentorship program. After those discussions we organise activities on career counseling for them: taking them to designers’ workshops, film making studios, engineering offices and so on. When children become comfortable with mentors, they are opening up: telling them about their families. Some have parents that are in constant fights. Some are not doing well in studies. Some… Different issues. There are more difficult conditions for those who live in Karachi than in Lahore.

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I: You described activities for career counseling in the mentorship program. So children can see opportunities and choose where they like and want to do?

Sanober: Yes. We also invite guest speakers who themselves come from villages, underpriviledged classes, but became successful in life. Today’s guest speaker, Bakhtiyar, is one of them. He comes from a lower class family, so he had to achieve everything himself, and now is a CEO of an engineering company here in Lahore.

I: Do the children come back to their homes after completing their education?

Sanober: Yes, most of them do. You see, we are not telling them that their conditions are bad or wrong. Suppose, I talk to a child whose father is a farmer. I will not tell him that farming is bad and he can do something more prestigious. I will encourage him to study, to learn, and then go back to their families and improve things. For example, how to do farming in a more efficient and sustainable way. They come back and bring the change.

I: Isn’t it difficult to come back to their home village after studying at LUMS [Lahore University of Management Sciences]?

Sanober: It must be. But that’s what we are preparing them for during their school years.

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I: Who is working for your organization?

Sanober: We have volunteers. Interesting fact is that most of them are IBA students [Business school located in Karachi]. Almost no one from Lahore. People in panjab are not really interested in social work. If they do come to work for us, they are doing it mostly for their CV. But graduates from Karachi have a passion.

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I: So in this school boys and girls are studying separately, and in Karachi schools - they are mixed?

Sanober: Yes. I wish they had been mixed over here as well.

I: Why do you think so? They are coming from traditional Muslim families, and it’s just secondary education. Why do you think they should interact with each other during classes?

Aralaan: I will tell you my opinion. During school years, when they interact with students of their own gender only, they tend to go to extremes later on. Some are getting over-interested in the opposite sex, and some become so shy that they are afraid of speaking to each other.

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I: Thank you so much, Sanober. I learned a lot about life of this children, social differences between regions of Pakistan and got ideas for my future work in career counseling. I am so glad I visited the school.