Green Crescent Trust Busting Myths in Struggle for Quality Education

Despite being a third world country, Pakistan is considered a generous country, as it donates more than one percent of its GDP to charity, as reported in the Stanford Social Innovative Review.

This charity which accounts for over Rs.240 billion runs several Non-Government Organizations or NGOs including the Green Crescent Trust (GCT). The GCT created back in 1995, runs over 150 Non Profit schools i.e. Hilal Public Schools (HPS) across Sindh alongside other projects, providing primary and secondary level education to some 29,000 children in the province.

Zahid Saeed, CEO GCT revealed that the dismal situation of education sector in the province, prompted him alongside a number of like-minded individuals to establish an organization which could cater the education cause.

“Sindh remains one of the most deprived provinces in Pakistan in matters of education and health. If we look at the latest figures from UNICEF, we have performed even worse than Baluchistan in the education sector, which is really pathetic,” said Saeed, while talking exclusively to Business Recorder.

However, despite being in the NGO sector for the past 23 years, the GCT remains reluctant to follow modern practices, as it boost no brand ambassador unlike others in the field including Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre and newbies such as the Shahid Afridi Foundation (SAF), and also shies away from spending much on advertisement.

“We have focused on maintaining a sustainable donor base, and have mostly relied on one-on-one communication, which we have found as the most effective tool of attracting donations. However, in order to reach wider audiences we opt to take the help of media, but we don’t spend our donors money on lavish advertisement.”

“We used to have late Fatima Surayya Bajia as our brand ambassador, and she was very much involved in our organization. But lately we do not have any such ambassadors and I admit that this is a lacking from our part and we should work on it,” admitted Saeed.

Despite boosting a tradition of giving, most donations in the country go directly to individuals, thus bypassing charitable organizations. Having a brand ambassador on the side increases the organization credibility.

Meanwhile, working solely in Sindh especially in rural areas, the GCT has found a successful way in dealing with the prevalent mindset and in the process have busted a number of myths surrounding the region as well.

“There were two myths commonly prevalent across Sindh. First, we were told when we were going into these areas that the waderas would create obstacles. Fortunately, to date we have not witness any such issues; as all our schools are functioning properly,” informed Saeed.

“This is because we do social work by involving the entire community, taking on board all the influential figures whether political or some wadera. Making them the stakeholders of our facility in return boost their goodwill among their people, as well,” he added.

“The second myth was that the people in interior Sindh do not allow their girls to get education. Whereas, here at our schools girls account for some 42pc of all the students enrolled. We have got girls which have completed their matriculation from our schools and have pursued further learning, and are found teaching at HPS and in other educational institution,” revealed Saeed.

Even if these girls fail to obtain further education, due to family issues or early marriages, the now educated girls make sure that their offspring get an education informed the CEO.

Meanwhile, despite working in Sindh for over two decades, the GCT is not planning to expand into other provinces, as it believes there is still a lot of work to be done and is only increasing.

“If there is no further work left to be done in Sindh, we would surely expand to other provinces, as we believe in improving Pakistan, not just Sindh." However, there is a long road ahead because as per the latest figures some 3.5 million children of school going age in Sindh are not attending schools.

“[Whereas] GCT is hardly providing schooling to some 29,000 children across the province, which does not make up even one percent, so we believe that there is no logic in expanding to other regions of the country if there is still work needed to be done in Sindh,” he added.