Non-profit GCT in past 29 years never experienced any of its charitable schools in remote Sindh shut due to law and order.
Karachi (Nut Desk)
Non-profit Green Crescent Trust (GCT) striving to enroll out-of-school children in remote and deprived parts of Sindh hasn’t experienced closure of any of its schools, not for a single day, due to any security-related issue in the past 29 years since its inception. This was disclosed by Chief Executive Officer of GCT, Zahid Saeed while speaking at the fundraiser of his non-profit for the schooling of over 30,500 children from deprived families based in underprivileged parts of Sindh. The children are enrolled in 160 charitable schools in remote and rural areas.
“On the basis of our continuous work in the past 29 years we are able to bust two very popular myths about Sindh: one is that feudal landlords of the province don’t allow the opening of quality schools in their areas and secondly they oppose schooling of native girls,” said Zahid Saeed. He said that GCT opened its schools in such remote and backward parts of Sindh where there was no prior government-run school. “Even then our schools never ever faced any law and order problem,” he said. He told the audience that out of a total of over 30,500 children in the GCT’s schools, 14,500 were girls showing that his charity had faced no issue in enrolling daughters belonging to deprived families. “Our way of working is that prior to the opening of a new school in a faraway area, we take into confidence its influential persons about our plan to spread education in his area and we always get fullest cooperation from the elders of the community that is going to be benefited from our charitable activity,” he said. He also said that GCT with support from the concerned philanthropists, its generous donors, the corporate sector, like-minded charities, and government agencies would continue with its drive to educate children from the backward areas in Sindh. He informed the audience that the GCT had the aim to increase the number of its charitable schools to 250 having enrolment of a total of 100,000 children from destitute families till 2025.
Zahid Saeed said that some 25 million out-of-school children were one of the most serious national issues in Pakistan and all the relevant NGOs, charities, government, and public sector institutions should join hands to tackle this problem in the shortest possible time. He said that Pakistan had the massive potential to become a superpower like China in a few years but for such a goal it is necessary that each and every child in the country should get quality schooling.
Speaking on the occasion, GCT Patron-in-chief, and noted industrialist, Sardar Yasin Malik shared with the audience his personal story of how education had enabled him to progress from an ordinary street common man in Karachi to becoming the country’s top taxpayer. He said that education was the only way forward for the new generation of underprivileged families to come out of the vicious circle of poverty, backwardness, and exploitation. He advised the audience that after attaining education one should practice entrepreneurship for securing financial empowerment in the shortest possible time. He praised Zahid Saeed’s commitment to building charitable schools in the remotest parts of Sindh where concerned parents didn’t have the financial means to educate their children.
Renowned actor Adnan Siddiqui conducted the fundraising session and get overwhelming support from the audience, comprising noted Karachi’s businessmen and industrialists, for the education drive of the GCT. Mr. Siddiqui urged other top celebrities in Pakistan to come forward and join the charitable drive to enroll millions of out-of-school children in every part of the country.
A documentary, produced by Pakistan’s celebrity YouTuber, Junaid Akram, was also screened to pay tribute to the GCT for reviving schooling in the shortest possible time in the vast parts of Sindh devastated by floods in 2022.
