Will the Dreams Come True?

How a small village community successfully builds a new school!

This tale emerging from a small village of Eno Bhatti near Lahore city may seem to be like many other stories of pity and sacrifice but on exploring it deep, open up some new chapters of the bitter realities of life.

It’s about three years ago when Human Development Foundation (HDF) surveyed this village many problems were noticed but the most alarming was the condition of educational status that was immensely pathetic. Nearly all the children used to roam in streets and wasted their time the whole day. Though some public schools were there but due to being at unreachable distances, these had no use to the villagers. In short, the poor people had no hope for the bright future of their children.

Following the philosophy of helping people help themselves, HDF decided to open a school for the villagers. According to the HDF’s Education Policy, the schools are community based where usually place (room or any covered area) is provided by the community and HDF bears schools’ set up and running expenditures.

Here comes the other side of the picture and a big question mark. Where people are so unprivileged, how can they be expected to shoulder such a big responsibility on their own in the terms of needed funds and resources. But hold on! It’s not the complete dark around, still there are some angelic people who can bestow their property for the betterment of their future generations. Haji Abdul Ghani is one of such rare personalities who not only donated land but also built two rooms for HDF to open a school and this is how Eno Bhatti got its first effective school. The parents were extremely pleased with the efforts of HDF and its concern for the development of the village.

In fact, the word does not end up here but it is the beginning of a new story right from here. With every passing day the strength of the school increased and resulted in the congestion of the building. The total capacity of the two room school is about 50 students but by now the strength has swelled up to 151 students. The additional about 100 students are currently being accommodated in a nearby Mosque and a room temporarily offered by a community member. Thus the only way out was to construct a school building that could accommodate such a big strength of still pouring in students.

Once again Mr. Ghani showed his kindness and proved that he was a real gem and donated a big part of his land (3000 sq. ft) for the construction of the school building. Now while HDF was looking around for funds to construct the school building, another large hearted angel based in USA, Dr. Javed Hafeez came forward and donated $ 20,000 for this purpose. HDF staff and the community are now busy making the school building amid many eager eyes watching it day and night to see it completed and wondering ….. ‘will their dream come true’?.

First the foundation then the beams and walls, every step of the school construction is adding up into the hopes of people for a bright future. But while making efforts, to cope up with the needed space requirements, the estimated costs have also gone up. Now when the building is about to move into the final steps of its construction, the dream of villagers seems to be still incomplete because the funds are exhausting. HDF has once again started its efforts for getting additionally needed funds (approximately $ 7000-8000) to complete the construction as incomplete building would be of no use.

God knows who else is there in the world like Ghanis and Javeds, feeling the pain of such people and willing to look into their eyes sparkling with hopes of making their dreams come true.

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/5/2006 10:36:19 PM

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