Samir is the third of four children to Jamir and Ruksana. Jamir makes a living as a carpenter earning about Rs 400 (5 USD) a day. With this he could afford to educate his older two children – Nadim, an excellent student in Grade 12 learning science, and Asra, a Grade 6 student.
When it came to 9-year-old Samir and his 4-year-old younger sibling Fatima, the family couldn’t even afford the daily commute to the nearest free municipal school. The children thus remained at home, playing every day on the streets of their slum community.
At the start of our last academic year, your gifts reached out to Samir and helped enroll him at our Beacon Learning Centre right inside his slum community.
Samir is now in Class 1 of our Open Basic Education course that’s designed to help older children like Samir catch up on the years of lost education. By his age, Samir should have been in Class 3, but poverty had robbed his very right to education. It’s your gifts that have restored this right to him, and by the end of this year, Samir will be eligible to join formal schooling.
Samir’s mother Ruksana is overjoyed at his progress. She’s attended all our focus group meetings that raise awareness about key social issues in their community, and she’s a regular at our open-house meetings and parents’ meetings.
Ruksana loves watching Samir sit down to study at home in the evenings. He can finally join his older siblings at their homework time! They motivate him to work hard at his studies, communicate politely with his teachers and peers, and be punctual to class every morning.
Samir dreams of joining a formal school soon and pursuing a career as a policeman. Thank you for investing in his dreams!
From never having attended a school for the first nine years of his life, to learning to read and write now, and even dream of a profession in the forces, your support towards Samir has taken him on an incredible journey in just a year. Blessings to you!
