How education in Ghaziabad changed Najma and Shabnam's lives

By YesPakistan.com Staff Writer

For Najma and Shabnam, both residents of Ghaziabad near Lahore, an education project in their town is an example of how literacy not only helps women learn the basics of living, but also can turn lives around for the better.

For Shabnam, she went from being illiterate to becoming a teacher at the very school where she learned to read and write. Today she balances her work with taking care of her four children and home.

For Najma, being able to read through the program saved her marriage.

A few months after she had begun attending the course, Najma was at home washing clothes. She was about to wash her husband's suit when she noticed there were papers in the pocket. After removing them and taking a look, she realized that these were divorce papers that had been prepared in a registry office and that her thumbprint on them had been forged on them.

Although she was nervous, she brought them to the elders of her family, who met with the elders of her husband's family. The situation was resolved and the couple is still married. After the entire ordeal, her husband asked her how she knew what the papers said. Her quiet reply was "I can read now."

Ghaziabad is a slum area. Living conditions are so crowded that families share houses by renting one room which has one courtyard for everyone. The conditions within and around the homes are dismal. A number of them do not have electricity and children often play around sewers that are open. In addition, a large number of the men are addicted to heroin.

However, amid these tragic conditions, there is a ray of hope: the local women are learning how to read.

They attend classes of about 10 to 16 women in one person's house six days a week for two hours. Many of these students bring their children of primary school age to be taught in a separate room.

The teachers in this school are women from the same neighborhood who, in many cases, recently learned how to read themselves. The phonetic curriculum that is used in the classes is adapted from the work of Brazilian educationist PaoloFriere.

But the knowledge seeking doesn't end there. The 'graduates' of these classes get together weekly to read and in turn, build their practical knowledge of the world around them, discussing topics like the causes of breast cancer and the nutritional value of carrots.

Literate women around have grasped this tool called literacy to read numbers on buses, labels on food, open bank accounts or read electricity bills. The women of Ghaziabad can also proudly call themselves literate.

But as the examples of Najma and Shabnam indicate, education is about more than knowing how to read and write. It has led to them becoming more self-confident, stronger in character and world-wise in a way they would have never imagined.

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/17/2002 3:44:43 PM

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