Bringing the gift of education to others can change lives and empower whole communities.
Misri Lal (pictured), who comes from a small village in rural Sindh, Pakistan, received teacher training through Tearfund’s local partner, the Diocese of Hyderabad. Accessing education can be a huge challenge for young people living in remote communities in Pakistan. Our partner’s program is helping children to get a quality education by setting up primary schools in places that don’t have a government school, and training local people to be teachers.
Before he became a teacher, Misri worked for a company in Karachi and used to come back regularly to visit his home village, where he noticed that many local children weren’t attending school. The nearest government school was some distance away from the village.
He started meeting with local NGOs to see if the situation could be improved. He had a chance to visit one of our partner’s primary schools in the area, and was so impressed by the quality of the school that he was able to work with the Diocese of Hyderabad to have a community school opened in the village. He was selected to be a teacher at the new school.
Because Misri had himself only completed grade 10 of school, some of the training sessions were difficult initially.
“Another teacher came to mentor me and help me do the lesson plan,” he says. “They encouraged me, saying ‘you can do it’”.
When Misri became a teacher, only four or five people in his community were educated. Now, more than 400 girls have started school.
With the gifts, passion and commitment he showed as a teacher, Misri was promoted to the role of Village LEAP Officer, which means he now monitors and assesses schools and mentors other teachers, guiding them on how best to educate children.
Misri says he wants to teach other teachers to become the best. His vision is to promote girls’ education in the community and motivate people to send their daughters to school.
Tearfund’s partner has set up 105 community schools, working to meet some of the needs of marginalised communities in Sindh. This education project also engages with women in communities, who then become champions for girls’ access to education. Staff work with women to build an understanding of the importance of education, their own literacy skills, and participate in groups where they save and access loans that will help their families. For women, many of whom didn’t have a chance for an education when they were young, this is life-changing. And now that women in this area have the opportunity to do adult literacy training, they have become role models for their own daughters, as well as their whole community.
With your support, people in these villages have an opportunity to fulfil their potential, building a brighter future for themselves and their communities. Support teacher training today by purchasing a Useful Gift.
Buy now
Related projects have received support from the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).
