Pakistani School

Christian Jinah Colony is a village a few miles out of Surkot in the Punjab region of Pakistan. When I spent the month of November, 2008 in the area there were about 2,000 people in the village with about 700 children. They had no school, possibility because they were Christians in a nation of 98% Moslem people.
 

There is a private school a few miles away but tuition is $2 a month and transportation is $16 by motor rickshaw. Only the brightest boys are sent in the hopes that they will come home and teach the others.

Pastor Rauf Swan asked if I would be interested in starting a school in Christian Jinah Colony for the children. I thought that they should be able to point to their children and say that God loves them also and wants the best for them, boys and girls equally. So, we talked about it and decided we could start in the church and grow from there. After checking with government officials, the church location was out. Pastor Swan found a building that would be free to use for 6 months if we bought it at the end for $4,000. He put in bathrooms for boys and girls and painted it. Government schools teach with the kids sitting on mats. We decided that benches or desks would be more appropriate for learning and so they are making and buying desks. They are also putting up fans since it gets over 100 much of the year.

Posters were prepared and put around the village to advertise “String Elementary School” founded by David Titus and administered by Pastor Ralf Swan. We do not have a great curriculum or wonderful educational materials, just kids and textbooks, and a love of kids. I sent a few posters, maps and materials from here. We are trying to get a couple of schools in the US to partner with them for some extra materials. Three teachers are now hired and some of the students will be starting on May 4, 2009. This is a very exciting time for the village. First they needed clean water and they banded together to put in a well and pump and now they are working for a school. These people are poor farmers without much chance for making cash money and really need help in their plans.

We debated whether to have the school be an English Medium or Urdu Medium school. We decided that rather than spend so much time teaching poor English that we would spend the time on Math, Reading and Science. The students will also spend some time doing string figures for pleasure and to enhance their hand eye coordination, imaginations, right/left brain skills and social skills.

The parents will be able to help with some of the expenses but we want it available to all children. In American dollars: Tuition will be $2 a month Summer Uniform $15 and winter uniform $20. (The government does not recognize a school unless the students have uniforms.) Annual books and stationary $20 and a Teacher salary would be $80 a month. As I said the building will be $4,000 with some necessary reconstruction within it.

If you would like to help get this project off the ground and give these village children a chance for an education please send your tax deductable donations to:  String Ministries, Pakistani School, PO Box 1406, Lawton, OK 73502-1406.  If you have any questions you can contact Dave Titus by email at OKTeller@juno.com and phone (580) 695 0782 or Pastor Rauf Swan by email at swanpakistan@yahoo.com and phone +92-345-756-0746.