BECAUSE THEY NEED YOUR HELP
DO NOT LET THEM DOWN !
TOGETHER WE CAN IMPROVE THEIR LIVES
SO LET'S DO IT !
Story by Rita Hibbard. Given one wish and $100,000, Karen Armstrong is changing the world. In February of 2008, Armstrong, a respected scholar who studies the connective tissues between world religions, was awarded the TED prize for her groundbreaking work. With that funding and the support of the TED organization, to grant one wish, Armstrong chose to focus on compassion.
Specifically, she asked TED to help her create, launch and propagate a “Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect."
In November of 2009, the Charter for Compassion was born. It grew from contributions of more than 150,000 people from 180 countries, and was crafted into a succinct, 312-word pledge that allows room for all faiths by a panel of leading religious scholars. More than 85,000 people have pledged to uphold it.
Armstrong attempts to make the journey to a compassionate life accessible in her book “Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life.” In the preface, she writes that, “All faiths insist that compassion is the test of true spirituality and that it brings us into relation with the transcendence we call God, Brahman, Nirvana, or Dao. Each has formulated its own version of what is sometimes called the Golden Rule, ‘Do not treat others as you would not like them to treat you,’ or in its positive form, ‘Always treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself.’ Further, they all insist that you cannot confine your benevolence to your own group; you must have concern for everybody — even your enemies.”
Yet every religion has a history of intolerance.
“I want people to hear the compassionate voice of religon,” she says in a short video produced by Jesse Dylan.“I want to change the conversation and bring compassion to the forefront of people’s attention.”
Her book breaks the journey to a compassionate life into steps, encouraging readers to extend compassion to themselves and to others, to learn, reflect and act in specific ways.
Armstrong believes that change happens one person at a time. She points to world leaders like Ghandi and Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. "One sees what one person can do, the tremendous impact (of) a decision to seek reconciliation, not revenge, as Mandela chose,” she said in an interview on NPR.
It is not easy, she admits. In the same interview, she calls the work “the struggle of a lifetime,” for herself as well as those around her. “Like everybody, I feel I've suffered, I feel I've been damaged, I meditate unpleasantly on my enemies and feel this corrosive sense of anger,” she said, admitting she has at times a sharp tongue.
Along with the personal struggle comes the global struggle.
On September 1, 2008, the Charter for Compassion began to build its partnership network with organizations around the world. Jesse Dylan and his team at FORM TV created a short video to help get people excited about contributing to the Charter for Compassion.
At the 2012 U.S.-Islamic World Forum, the Religious Leaders Working Group brought together religious leaders and activists from all over the world to discuss compassion and how to restore it to its rightful place as the test of true spirituality and the heart of religious and moral life. Participants discussed the Charter for Compassion, written in 2008 by leading activists and thinkers representing six of the major world faiths, and how the group could begin to build a global network of compassionate religious communities.
Download Karen Amstrong's paper, Compassion: An Urgent Global Imperative
In September, Karen Armstrong gave the keynote speech at the Islamic Society of North America. ISNA endorsed the Charter and Imam Mohamed Magid declared the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center a Compassionate Mosque and is inviting all ISNA mosques to do the same.
Religious and spiritual leaders from all faiths can bring a truly compassionate and authoritative perspective to world crises and challenges, countering the strident voices of extremism and making the compassionate voice of religion a dynamic, practical, and positive force in our dangerously polarized world. Only then can the faith traditions fulfill one of the chief tasks of our time: to build a global community where people of all ethnicities and ideologies can live together in mutual respect.
The Charter for Compassion website launches and people of all faiths, all nations and all backgrounds are invited to submit their own words to the Charter.
The Charter for Compassion is a product of its time, for its time. Using a unique web-based decision-making platform, thousands of people from more than 100 countries added their voice to the writing of the Charter. Over a six-week period, thousands of submissions were entered which were then read and commented upon by over 150,000 visitors. These contributions were then reviewed by the Council of Conscience and incorporated into the final document.
Following is a sample of the submissions received for the Charter:
"Compassion rooted in empathy implies a noble transaction between human beings, whereas a compassion based in pity establishes an imbalance of power and position. To pity another is to view the other’s situation disdainfully without necessarily being motivated to effect change for that person. To feel genuine Compassion is to apply will and action to the other’s situation creating activity to redress imbalances… A Compassionate Society is a sharing society, one the mass of humanity will have their genuine needs met. Bring it on." ~ Greg Rzesniowiecki, Secular/Nonreligious, Australia
"Youth are also the most vulnerable minds. Their minds should be fine tuned by providing them with compassionate educators and institutions. Youth are the future generations so they should be well informed on how to take this world ahead." ~ Sohail Selmi, Islam, Pakistan
"The scholar must look at all religions in order to understand the similarities; the essence of every religion is the same. Every human comes from the light whether he is Hindu, Christian, Muslim or an atheist. God is not restricted to any country and religion and pervades the entire cosmos. This means every human." ~ Mohit Misra, Hinduism, India
"We must remember that compassion is for everyone, but can only be felt on an individual basis. We cannot make others compassionate, only set the tone for them to become compassionate as well." ~ Mike Morgan, Christianity, United States
More than 75 events took place around the globe to launch the Charter for Compassion on November 12. Charter for Compassion partners — groups and individuals around the world who are deeply committed to the Charter’s ideals — work tirelessly in the name compassion and interfaith dialogue, bringing the Charter to life in their communities. The Charter team promotes their important work.
Compassionate School Network is a research-based approach to test the experimental ideas which use creative approaches to cause peace building in education. They have been found to have better teacher effectiveness, higher student achievement, and improved school environment. Using it as a collaborative resource for academic, social, and emotional learning in schools; it has worked as one of the most well-designed, evidence-based learning programs.
The Compassionate School Network (CSN) initiative is the first of its kind in the world; introduced by Charter for Compassion, which stresses on teaching compassion to every student in their most important learning years. The goal is to empower compassionate youth who will then grow up to become compassionate adults, bringing about a significant impact on how education is parted in the school system our aim is to develop a more tolerant and peaceful society. CSN started in December 2012 after conducting two years of extensive research on how to integrate compassion in the daily activities of Pakistani students.
CFC aspire to transform societies through education and training; we provide teachers the tools and training they require to deliver compassion. Through our innovative social programs we hope to inspire more compassionate actions from the youth. Each lesson comprises of activities, projects, class exercises and discussions to explore nine fundamental compassionate skills including: mindfulness, courage, altruism, empathy, self-compassion, forgiveness, gratitude, humility and integrity.
This is done by designing lessons and subject content to improve learning abilities while highlighting the importance of the 9 skills of compassion. This will lead to changed individual action and effect societal transformation. Compassionate School Network intends to boost harmony and respect amongst the youth in Karachi, through incorporating compassionate educational and sports based programs in our school network.
Compassionate School Network project incorporates nine behavioral based skills of compassion in students’ lives through both training educators and creating a supplementary curriculum in schools. 200 schools are part of this network whereas 70 schools are actively participating in the Compassionate School Network program. Out of which 42 reside in high-income groups while 28 cater to children from low-income areas of Karachi.
Over the years, CFC has trained 5,000 teachers in the nine skills of compassion, conflict management and peace building; hence these teachings have trickled down to over 35,000 students in the city. The donor for this project was the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Recently CFC has collaborated with DAI and is building a capacity of 40 schools with 450 teachers in 6 new underprivileged communities across Karachi. An anti-bullying campaign has been added to this program to further reinforce the cause of compassion.
HumQadam is an initiative under the Compassionate School Network, aimed at educating and training teachers to curb the culture of pressurizing and bullying which takes place in schools. The purpose of this is to help teachers identify and define bullying in order to stop students from bullying and prevent negative long lasting psychological, and in extreme cases, physical abuse on students.
The program will involve teacher training sessions designed and conducted by professional psychologists; equipping them with techniques and strategies to check aggressive student behavior and counter it by encouraging positive interaction amongst them. Training sessions will incorporate the nine skills of compassion as tools for countering negative behavioral patterns.
A texting platform will be set up where students can text in at 8398. This is for students who need a platform or means to report any negative experience. They will have the opportunity to reach out to CFC and get guidance from their schools and trained teachers.
Students will be given lessons on how to recognize and report hate speech and bullying and or any form of violence. Selected students from each school will lead the anti-bullying campaign in their respective schools. Students will participate in resilience drives where they will visit other schools in the community and share their schools’ challenges and successes. Such positive interventions and interactions amongst like-minded students will foster a compassionate and healthy community.
After the successful implementation of the Compassionate School Network in schools across the country, we hope to expand to 5000 schools and universities across Pakistan and globally by the year 2020.
We believe compassion practiced today will deliver a more peaceful tomorrow!
The golden rule to make this world a peaceful place is to treat others the same way we would wish to be treated. This dogma is what revolves around each project of the Government of Sindh Education and Literary Department. After consistent efforts of the Charter for Compassion (CFC) to make humanity common in all corners of Pakistan; the charter made another goal to take education to the next level in the country. The EMO project along with the CFC made a Sindh Education Sector Plan which sets its goal to make every child in the province not only educated without a financial aid, but also given quality education competing the private schooling system and opportunities for deserving youth to earn a living through teaching profession.
The goal of this project is to empower the younger generation of Pakistan with the powerful weapons of pen and enlightenment so that they can compete shoulder to shoulder with the world. By making free and compulsory education a legal obligation, the project also aims to make education common regardless of gender, ethnicity, and class or language barriers. Operative since 25th Feb 2016, this project has been successful in opening several schools and has started educating several millions of pupils in areas like Sukkur and Khairpur, and aims to spread more rapidly than before in other areas of Sindh at large.
According to famous saying; “If you educate a woman you educate an entire generation. A woman is the nucleus of a household and plays a major role in raising her children.”
Mumkin is a social learning space for underprivileged women to come together, socially connect with each other, acquire useful skills and share their knowledge. The project title highlights the message that women are equal members of society and with the right attitude and improved skill set; it is possible for them to become a thriving asset for a society.
The vision is to educate woman who can aspire to create economic opportunity for themselves and be better able to groom her children into ethical and productive citizens of society. Eventually increase the women participation in the workforce to result in higher economic growth.
CFC aims to provide a social platform for females where training sessions and workshops will be conducted to instill the values of compassion in order to create a peaceful and thriving society. We hope to invoke the leadership and communication skills in them to become advocates of social change.The vocational training will aid them in attaining important skills that can lead to employment and income generating activities, to escape from poverty.
There are two parts to Project Mumkin. The first part consists of instilling positive behavioral change in these females while the second part is to provide certain skills that will economically uplift them and connect them with economic markets. Part one sets to change the mindset of the females and making them more confident, ethical and compassionate citizens of the society while the second part is a tool to empower them and add sustainability to the project. Hence, the learning center will serve as a skill center, an incubation hub and a retail outlet.
Mumkin was launched in three major extreme under-served communities of Karachi: Lyari, Landhi and Korangi. We are targeting around 25 to 35 females per community in one batch from these three areas. Hence, total direct beneficiaries in three learning centers will be an estimated 75 females including teachers and housewives with ages ranging from 19-45 years.
Training in fashion designing and compassionate entrepreneurial skills is being provided to mothers of local community in the skill’s center in collaboration with Fashion and Business Institutes. The aim is to help them make competitive good quality products which can match the market standards and enable them to sell their products within the community at affordable prices. This training is designed to inculcate relevant skills that can help them in making fashion products that the underserved communities aspire for.
The creation of retail outlet within the locality is a means for these females to sell their products. We hold exhibitions and other marketing activities in these outlets every month in order to constantly attract customers. In the incubation center, females discuss their business ideas with each other and gather useful insights. We also provide them counseling sessions which help them in improving their business plans and think broadly.
The project duration for one training program is six months during which it will be ensured that the members are independent enough to run the community centers on their own. They will be in contact with CFC even after the formal duration of the project, which will provide them the support when they require.
This program provides women with economic avenues and behavioral training that enables the development of a energetic community driven by compassionate values and ideals. The outcome of this project is the formation of independent and confident females who are able to engage in constructive activities and stand up for their rights.
100 women have been trained in 4 batches in fashion designing (on demand from communities) complimented by nine compassionate skills training and entrepreneurship training. Two Business idea competitions were also held where the participants presented their business ideas along with feasibility and sustainability of the business. The course ended with two exhibitions displaying the products prepared by the participants during the course of their training. Currently,CFC in collaboration with Aman Foundation is offering vocational training to 80 women in Basic Computer operating and Basic Dress Making by expanding its reach to Sultanabad and Nanakwara communities.
The project will be expanded to other conflict prone areas of Karachi where CFC already has a presence. These areas include: Sultanabad and Orangi Town.
Empowered women can be agents of social and economic change. Females play a vital role in the household in terms of influencing mindsets. Compassionate and empowered females will be well- aware of raising their children as productive citizens with high ethical and moral values, which is the ultimate aim of this project.
With the advent of technology and e-books, the reading culture in libraries is becoming extinct. More so, the lack of libraries in our country is depriving children today from the fulfilling and gratifying experience of reading books.
Bearing this thought process; the Collaborative Libraries Project (CLP) was conceptualized under the Compassionate Karachi campaign in 2014. With the generous support of our donor, Jubilee Life Insurance, 15 libraries were created in underserved schools of Korangi, Lyari and Shireen Jinnah Colony impacting over 5000 students who had never experienced a library before.
The goal of this revolutionary project is to promote the importance of quality education and reading in both underserved and privileged schools. We want to create a positive learning environment where the reading culture is revived and encouraged, by providing adequate means to make it happen. This will also conceptualize children towards the importance of libraries and promote reading habits.
Embarking upon this wonderful journey in January 2016 and continuing it till January 2017, CLP has conducted over 30 sessions with various partner schools and organizations.
To further facilitate these libraries, collaboration was formed with 15 privileged schools (Bayview High School, Indus Academy, Frobel’s, Mrs. Haque Academy, amongst others) that have partnered with CFC. Numerous activities have been conducted to engage the students from the 30 schools to interact with one another while promoting education.
The “Shelve a Book Drive” took place in the 15 privileged schools. The activity aimed at highlighting a sense of Compassion as the students were asked to gift their favorite books, old or new, to their partnered libraries. Through this process over 20,000 books were gifted and have been shelved in the libraries.
To inculcate reading as a habit and make it more interesting we introduced “Partner in Reading.” The activity brings students together as they visit their partnered school where dramatic readings are held. The stories selected are based on a specific theme of Compassion. We selected stories like Aesop’s famous fable “The Lion and the Mouse” and Dr.Seuss “Sneetches.” So far, over 10 sessions have been conducted and the students from both schools have enjoyed this interaction. At Indus Academy (Clifton) during the reading of “Ferdinand” by Munro Leaf, students from Johar Public School (Korangi) helped students of Indus read the story in Urdu.
A large scale reading event was organized in April where 11 underserved school students participated enacting their favorite stories. Partner in Reading involved over 1000 students from the under-served school network which helped them learn many compassionate morals.
Cinebrary (movie screenings) commenced in June 2016 as an activity to break the monotony of reading and further developing children’s imagination. 4 Cinebrary sessions engaging more than 400 under-served students were hosted in the past year.
Storytelling activities were organized at the Children’s Literature Festival (CLF) 2016 at the Oxford University Press head office by students of Institute of Business Management (IoBM) as a way to encourage and collaborate with like-minded organizations. More than 250 students participated in this insightful activity. We are thankful to Mr. Masood Hasan from Jubilee Life Insurance (JLI) who led the storytelling at CLF in February and Mrs. Razia Khan who led the storytelling at Oxford University Press in November. To further understand the benefits of the project, students from IoBM conducted research as part of their university’s Capstone Project and developed a “Librarians’ Manual and Engagement Activities Plan”. Moreover, the students also organized their own storytelling and art competition with the students of Al-Hamd school in Korangi. We are thankful to Mrs. Juveria Baig for leading this Capstone team to work specifically on CLP.
With over 400 schools participating in Compassionate Karachi, most of them have decided to adopt a library for the cause. The adopting schools would have the responsibility of conducting annual book drives that help collect books from all students. These books will then be gifted under-served school for their library.
The schools which will build a library will perform the following task:
With the books being provided by the privileged schools, CfC undertakes the responsibility to provide the following to the schools who build a library:
In addition to this CfC will be painting the walls, redo the flooring and install solar powered lights and fans. Our efforts are aimed at creating an inviting and a completely transformative environment in these schools where children look forward to spending time in their library.
Constant checks and monitoring will be performed by CFC representatives in these underserved schools to oversee the condition of libraries to assure the reading culture progresses. Surveys from students have also been carried out upon how they feel reading has changed their lives and how much time they spend on reading.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with Rotary Pakistan Literacy Mission (RPLM) to gather books that will be circulated in the underserved school community further adding value to this initiative.
We would like to extend our gratitude to Jubilee Life Insurance for facilitating the reading process that Collaborative Libraries Project aims to continue. Nearly 2000 children have been impacted by our activities and we hope to scale up and expand this number in the current year.
“If we all become united, there’s nothing we cannot do. If we all share, there’s nothing we cannot get.”
Iqra Grammar School“We are taught that we should help everyone despite what their religion is.”
“We learnt that we should not undermine those younger than us. We should respect everyone despite their age.”
“We performed many activities where we had a lot of fun and we also learnt a lot of things. We were taught that we can go far ahead with our passion. They are very kind to us.”
“We are taught compassion towards every human and animal.”
“Libraries play a very significant role in school and we learn a lot from libraries. Books are our friends and an important part of our life.”
Since the occurrence of the most devastating heat wave in Karachi 2015, the city witnessed a deep shock of loosing more than 1200 lives. This warranted immediate action hence, leading to the creation of Compassionate Footprint project. Our teams went into an immediate overdrive to spread awareness about the environment. Our target audience was schools and we supplemented our awareness campaign with a plantation drive to increase the strength of our message.
Compassionate Footprint focuses on bringing about a positive behavioral change in privileged and underserved youth by teaching them to interactively co-exist with one another; regardless of ethnicity, race or religion. This project will challenge students’ pre-conceived perceptions of different communities. We aim to actively spread the project in schools of Karachi. Compassionate behaviors will be instilled in the students of these schools by designing initiatives that prepare them to gain ownership of their environment and practice peaceful activities.
This project seeks to support vulnerable individuals and communities in developing opportunities and foster positive value set of pride, unity, and resilience that undermineviolent activities in the society.
The activity kick started by registering 100 schools (50 privileged schools and 50 underprivileged schools from Karachi Youth Initiative focused areas) and bringing on board 800 students and 200 teachers from these schools. An introductory interactive session was held with the students to inform and explain to them the purpose of this activity and its relationship to helping achieve its objectives.
A peace education debate was also part of this initiative to instill peace building ideas amongst students. The participants for these debates were from both underserved and privileged schools. Debates were held amongst teams of 4 students, two from each school, who shared the same platform to express their ideas. Thirty schools of Karachi participated in these debates and three rounds were held. The debate were focused on various ways to make Karachi a safer, compassionate city which included: providing quality education to all children, making our streets safe and that the rule of law applies to each and every one. This was important to highlight and recognize that every Karachiite is equal and citizens regardless of their religion, socio-economic status or race are one. This primary initiative created a healthy dialogue and increased collaboration between the privileged and underserved schools. Students from diverse backgrounds came together as one to share their ideas and together delivered speeches which left people in amazement.
A remarkable initiative has been taken by CFC named “Adopt a Tree” to strengthen the communication and serve as reminder of collaboration amongst privileged and underserved students to plant trees in each other’s schools. This will signify the importance of accepting diversity, working together and treating each other with compassion. This drive highlights the crux of CFC’s ideology of instilling feelings of empathy, humility, altruism and mindfulness in the youth.
Environmental clubs will also be formed in schools to ensure that the planted trees are not forgotten, while further entrenching the link between partnered schools and facilitating constant interaction between the schools and the students.
In the near future, this project will expand in parks where we will adopt walls for paintwork as well. Small theatrical performances will also be conducted by students in collaboration to build a bridge of compassion between the two communities through arts, theater and purifying the environment.
With 400 schools and 28 universities part of Compassionate Karachi, we wish to use this vast network by creating awareness about Compassionate Footprint and identify individuals and institutions eager to combat their carbon footprint by pledging to plant and then adopt trees in the city of Karachi.
The focus of the sports program is to concentrate on the mental, physical and social well-being of the participants, the positive development of their sport skills. Sports activities/events like these will develop feelings of resilience and efficacy in self-esteem, building team cohesion and synergy and problem solving capabilities for both communities and individuals.
CCC envisions that when teams from different areas will interact with each other, they will embrace diversity, witness teamwork and show tolerance towards their team members and other teams. We hope that this will change the way participants think of each other to bring their differences in skill on the field and come together as friends of the field.
The Compassionate Cricket Camp successfully contributes to the playing ability of 270 children from these areas, providing them the opportunity to regularly partake in practice sessions, matches, tournaments and compassionate skill-based trainings in 4 specific skills of compassion i.e. Mindfulness, Courage, Integrity and Forgiveness.This enables us to effectively pull vulnerable children away from the surrounding violent extremism, learn tolerance and use their energy in playing sports.
In September 2017, variety sports equipment was provided to 15 literacy centers across 4 districts of Sindh catering to 4000 learners. This was to inculcate healthy living habits and provide them a platform to showcase their hidden talents in their favorite sports.
In Oct 2017, sports week was also organized in 4 government schools in Sukkur and Khairpur engaging 3500 students in athletic activities.
In Nov 2017, another cricket camp was launched at EidgahNazimabad cricket ground for nearby underprivileged areas.
Such initiatives and activities will certainly help harness the talent in our nation and provide a product outlet for our youth. They will strengthen themselves in healthy competition, understand teamwork, practice tolerance and become more compassionate towards each other.
Compassionate Community Network was started by CfC and focuses on three main stake holders of the society; children, parents and schools. The aim is to instill the nine compassionate skills in them. Projects have been created by the CfC team focusing on each of the stake holders.
Compassionate Cricket Camp
The community cricket camp was inaugurated in February 2014 in three conflict prone areas of Karachi; Korangi, Lyari and Sultanabad/ Hijrat Colony. Trials were held in the first month which received an overwhelming response and six teams of Under 18 were created in each area. The CFC team has adopted grounds in these areas and installed netting and pitch facilities in them. Three coaches have been hired and the players have been provided with best quality cricket kits. The aim of the project is to teach the children four compassionate skills (mindfulness, courage, forgiveness and integrity) in order to make them better adults.
Practice sessions have begun and are being held four times a week. The camp has led to the communities coming together as one leaving their race, sect and class behind. After the end of the practice sessions a tournament will be held where the teams will be competing against one another to fully display their sportsmen spirit.
Coordinators Project
Charter for Compassion Pakistan started the coordinators project in January 2014 in three adopted public schools in Sultanabad. Two coordinators were hired to monitor the academic and administrative issues faced by the school. The coordinators sent in daily updates and weekly reports on the problems and developments of the schools. To overcome the prevalent problems and formulate solutions CfC and the schools’ management meets on a monthly basis. The performance of the school is evaluated against pre-set objectives to determine the progress in the school.
Since the launch of this project, reports show that teachers have become more responsible and adopted a more serious attitude towards their student’s future. Class attendance has increased by 60% in just the first five months and teacher absenteeism has decreased by 40%.
This project was initiated with the vision to develop the school as a model to further execute this project in more schools and make it part of the Compassionate School Network.
For more information, visit:https://www.facebook.com/compassionatecricket?fref=ts ,https://www.facebook.com/cfcpak
Compassionate Business Quotient is an effort to evoke compassionate thought and action in individuals from different walks of life. In 2011 a study was conducted in Pakistan to determine the level of compassion in professionals from 21 organizations from different industries and sectors, surprisingly none these reputable organizations could be categorized as highly compassionate. This indicates the dire need for compassionate trainings in organizations.
Compassionate business practices can provide businesses not only with improved financial performance but also an all new organizational behavior where compassion will be a fundamental part of the organization values. Compassionate behaviors between the organization and the stakeholders can better work situations and work ethics; resulting into improved corporate relations, decreased turnover costs and high employee productivity.
CBQ assists in the overall cultural development of an organization, help build strong employer-employee relationships, enhance organizational performance and increase employee job satisfaction and most importantly training all levels improve interpersonal relationships by instilling team-building, conflict resolution and intrinsic motivation skills. Happy employees also make for a more congenial workplace and improved customer service. Employees in positive moods are more willing to help peers and to provide customer service on their own accord. In doing so, they boost coworkers’ productivity levels and increase coworkers’ feeling of social connection, as well as their commitment to the workplace and their levels of engagement with their job.
Dream, believe, achieve is the philosophy we carry; and in order to do that, it is very important to support the cause of Arts. Children are wonder of imagination therefore, Charter for Compassion, along with English Biscuit Manufacturers brought forward an arts competition themed: compassion. For young artists ranging from 6 years to 16 years, to showcase their imagination and produce works of wonder. With 8 schools participating and over 400 young artists coming forward, the competition was held on January 30th, 2014 at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park.
The topics varied from random acts of kindness to courage, highlighting the concept of how sad our world would be without compassion. This competition reflected on turning our city into a compassionate one- by allowing participants to draw, paint, color their imaginations, dreams and emotions based on the topic they choose.
This competition focused on opening up the minds of children and exploring their creativity. The idea was to instill feelings of compassion, gratitude and empathy in young minds so that they learn and adopt these philosophies in life. This would also help them discovering their capabilities and become more conscious individuals.
Art competition at its peakThe event started off with an interactive story telling session, about compassion, by trainer & consultant Mr. ZohairAllibhoy, who focused on all nine skills CFC Curriculum; Courage, Empathy, Gratitude, Forgiveness, Humility, Self Compassion, Altruism, Mindfulness & Integrity. Ms. AnusheHussain, the project lead then announced the rules and a burst of colors emerged!
“No matter who gets the first position, every one of you is a winner today” said Mr. Amin Hashwani, President of Charter for Compassion Pakistan, addressing the students before the beginning of the competition. Out of hundreds of schools and thousands of students, four hundred taking an initiative to come forward to draw a better tomorrow, are definitely winners. The students enjoyed the outdoor environment and were absorbed in their art works. Thoughts of compassionate were smeared everywhere!
“Education is Compassion,” said one teacher. “The world we are living in shows little display of compassion, but the Compassionate School Network has helped my students develop the courage to display compassion towards fellow class mates, people, animals and other living things in general.”
“Compassion is an important skill, it not only develops mindfulness and a sense of altruism in our future generations, but also helps in character building of our students, making them better human beings”, said another teacher.
Volunteers from different universities also took part in it, actively learning from student thoughts themselves.
The honorable judges of this competition included: NafisaRizvi, NurayahNabi Sheikh, RabeyaJalil, ArshadFaruqi, ScheherzadeJunejo and Samar Hussain.
Bridging the gap between character and education, this competition provided a brilliant opportunity for students and teachers to interact and reflect on their ideas of a compassionate world. Students were divided into three categories; grade one to three, four to six and seven to ten, and they proudly displayed their artwork, which helped even teachers learn more about their students.
The amazing sight to see was that students were taking responsibility and getting up to clean the mess which was made during the competition, collecting all the garbage in the park and binning it! Definitely, that is a wonderful act of compassion towards the world. “Little acts of Kindness is what compassion is all about”, said a six year old girl.
Multiple print & electronic media came in to cover the event, motivating the students further to display their work.
The Navy School for Special children also participated in the competition, producing amazing ideas and thoughts about a compassionate world.
The event closed on a high note, where students and teachers endorsed the idea of more events like these on a larger scale, attempting to make Karachi a Compassionate city. Such enthusiasm of students and teachers deserves high applaud and encourages us further to come up with positive progressive initiatives in the future!
Education management organization is a component of the overall Sindh Basic Education Program (SBEP). This is a joint collaboration of USAID and School Education Department (SED) formerly Education and Literacy Department, Government of Sindh (GoS).
Charter for Compassion’s vision for Education Management Organization Schools is “to create an institution that provides premium quality education to students through building a compassionate learning environment.”
Charter for Compassion Pakistan in collaboration with Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) is managing three primary schools in small villages of Tharparkar District of Sindh. These three villages are Biitra, MansinghBheel and ThariyoHalepota respectively.
This initiative aims to improve the standards of education in the province of Sindh and highlight the importance of studying in a compassionate environment. CFC’s major goal is to manage and improve the functioning of these governmental schools by introducing innovations, modernizing the education system, addressing management gaps, maintaining and upgrading the school building and its facilities. Also, it is essential to cooperatively work together with teachers, schools’ staff, school management committees, surrounding communities and local tiers of the Sind Education Department.
Selective public schools established under SBEP Program have outsourced the management and administration to EMO’s. In this bid, CFC has successfully won two schools (GBHS Koro Goth- Khairpur and GGHS Arain-Sukkur) in its first bid, two schools (GHS Abad Lakha - Sukkur and GHS BedilBekas -Sukkur) in second and five schools (GBHS Dodanko, GBHS G(N) Modern, GBHS TandoNazar Ali, GBHSS Setharja, GBHSS Hussainabad) in the third bid; each contract is made for ten years under the Education Management Organization (EMO).
From the 1stAugust to 15thOctober, 2017 most of the work done are primary activities, setting up student’s monthly assessment tests, improve student/teacher’s attendance, and teachers training.
Since their handover all three schools in Tharparkar District have had demonstrated better administration while the response has been positive from the locals of these communities.
Our field coordinator and staff from each school have played a remarkable role in carrying out the admissions’ form drive. During this drive we were able to register 465 admissions for Tharparkar. These include: 176 students from MansinghBheel, 158 students from Thariyo and 131 students from Bittra. The process is still ongoing until we reach our target of 180 students per school. Previously Goths in these areas lacked the educational facilities, however now the parents are very happy in sending their children to schools.
In the month of August the average student’s attendance was 75%, 78% and 70% in MansinghBheel, Thariyo and Bittra Respectively and as a whole attendance on an average was 74%.
In the month of September the average student’s attendance was76%, 97% and 75% in MansinghBheel, Thariyo and Bittra respectively and as a whole attendance on an average was 83%.
In the month of October the average student’s attendance was67%, 88% and 82% in MansinghBheel, Thariyo and Bittra respectively and as a whole attendance on an average was 71%.
As these statistics prove, the administrative progress at each school has been satisfactory. In each school 6 different classes (Kindergarten to Five) are operating. Classes are conducted in a more interactive manner to keep the students engaged and broaden their learning capacities.
Staff attendance at the Tharparkar Schools in the month of August and September remained at 93% and 95% respectively; the 5 to 7% lack of staff attendance was due to sickness. Initially the teachers are delivering lectures in Sindhi and English but gradually they will switch to Urdu and English. They are working hard and call each student at writing board to help with the letter formation. Through this the students are getting engaged in class activities, developing interests in studies whereas teachers can explore the student-centered learning approach.
To ensure teachers efficiency, teacher assessment tests are also being conducted on a regular basis to analyze their performance and learning’s based on the trainings they have received.
In the month of August 2017, a six days training and one day post-evaluation test was held at the TSF.There were 23 participants including teaching and non-teaching staff. The objective of the training was to familiarize the teachers to new methods which are being practiced in top tier private schools in Pakistan and globally, and to get them certified so that they can implement these in their school.
Similarly, four- days training sessions were held at the ThariyoHalepota School in September 2017. There were 27 participates in training including teaching and non-teaching staff of all three schools of Tharparkar. Following were the activities covered during these four days:
On the occasion of the Independence Day, the students and teachers enthusiastically commemorated in all three Tharparkar Schools.
The students performed the following:
On the occasion of 12th of September which was held at Mining Thar Coal, students from each school participated in different stage activities. Detailed plans were made by the CFC team and Engro Education Manager.
Here are the activities which students prepared and performed:
The confidence and enthusiasm of students was noteworthy and well-appreciated by Chief Guests and other officials. It is a positive sign that these students excel in extra-curricular activities and have the right learning attitude.
We contacted different suppliers of shoes at Islamkot to order shoes for the students and distributed amongst them. Uniforms were also distributed to them on different occasions. This will encourage the students, set an example of sharing and caring, and cultivate positive feelings in them.
Charter for Compassion along with SECMC will continue to maximize their efforts in promoting education and enrolling students in schools, in remote areas of Sindh.
Research indicates that individuals who develop reading habits at an early age tend to cultivate better comprehension skills. These skills if nurtured in the ideal schooling environment enable a child to acquire improved academic achievements. Unfortunately, with the rising trend in prioritizing of various technologies over a set of books, this skill has been seldom worked on.
Each year Charter for Compassion Pakistan calls for students between the ages of 12-24 to participate in our Ramzaan Challenge. This challenge requires the participants to design a social-welfare project that they would then execute during Ramzaan. One of our contestants from the 2013 Challenge pointed-out the crucial need of libraries in schools. This was because most of the school libraries are either not up-to-date or they are completely deprived of the brilliant world of books. This 12 year old participant spent his Ramzaan collecting books that he would later on be gifting to a school in Lyari, where the concept of a library was nonexistent.
The city of Karachi has 41 public libraries. Many of these are either inaccessible for the general public due to its location or are beyond repair standing momentarily on its paper-thin walls.
Inspired by this brave child’s efforts, CFC has decided to take this initiative forward on a city-wide scale and create libraries in schools where this facility is missing thereby promoting the reading culture in under-served schools or Karachi.
Consul General Grace Shelton and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah witnessed the signing between Sindh School Education Department and Beaconhouse, Sukkur –IBA, and Indus Resource Centre and Charter for Compassion on the management and construction of five new schools in Khairpur and Sukkur districts.
We had an opportunity to host a session at the 2015 KLF. We dedicated the session to Compassionate Karachi, which is in support of the I AM Karachi campaign.
A panel discussion was held with honorable citizens who are at the top of their field to discuss the role of civil society in a Compassionate Karachi. It started off with Ms. Karen Armstrong, author and founder of Charter for Compassion International, on Skype discussing the importance of a compassionate city. Ms. Armstrong went on to explain how histories of people living in different parts of the world were intertwined. She also pointed out that what happens in the world-affected people living thousands of miles away. "That's why compassionate cities are so important. What's at stake here is peace throughout the world."
She was followed by a discussion amongst our panelist; Dr. Ishrat Hussain, Dean of IBA, Mr. Jameel Yusuf, Chairman of TPL Holdings, Dr. Pervaz Hoodbhoy, Nuclear Physicist, and Mr. Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Commissioner Karachi. Each of them discussed how the civil society within their fields can impact a compassionate city. The discussion was moderated by Mr. Amin Hashwani, President of CfC Pakistan.
Compassionate Business Quotient is an effort to evoke compassionate thought and action in individuals from different walks of life. In 2011 a study was conducted in Pakistan to determine the level of compassion in professionals from 21 organizations from different industries and sectors, surprisingly none these reputable organizations could be categorized as highly compassionate. This indicates the dire need for compassionate trainings in organizations.
Compassionate business practices can provide businesses not only with improved financial performance but also an all new organizational behavior where compassion will be a fundamental part of the organization values. Compassionate behaviors between the organization and the stakeholders can better work situations and work ethics; resulting into improved corporate relations, decreased turnover costs and high employee productivity.
CBQ assists in the overall cultural development of an organization, help build strong employer-employee relationships, enhance organizational performance and increase employee job satisfaction and most importantly training all levels improve interpersonal relationships by instilling team-building, conflict resolution and intrinsic motivation skills. Happy employees also make for a more congenial workplace and improved customer service. Employees in positive moods are more willing to help peers and to provide customer service on their own accord. In doing so, they boost coworkers’ productivity levels and increase coworkers’ feeling of social connection, as well as their commitment to the workplace and their levels of engagement with their job.
One of the primary goals of the Charter for Compassion is to contribute towards the creation of a more compassionate world in the future. We spend considerable amounts of time at CFC thinking about this, and one of the things we unanimously agree on is that in order to have a more compassionate Pakistan, we’re going to have to invest in the children of our country.
Long term change is, as we all know, slow in coming and requires careful planning and investment. Apart from everyday acts of kindness and compassion, we feel that the best way to bring about a change in Pakistan that will result in our nation being more empathetic and kind is to start teaching children those values.
While some schools have subjects such as Ethics and Social Studies, it’s important to question the extent to which children actually internalize the values they are being taught, as opposed to reading and learning about them and treating them as just another subject they have to do homework on. There are several questions parents and educators should ask themselves:
Are the important lessons children are being taught being reinforced in other parts of their lives? What are the methods being employed for the children to think beyond themselves and their own lives? Are children being made aware of the privileges they have?
These are crucial questions that need to be asked when it comes to educating and socializing children. They are after all, as the cliché goes, blank slates. Given how polarized society has become, especially when it comes to economic disparity and the general state of affairs in Pakistan, what with the plethora of problems faced by Pakistanis, forgetting others can become easy. For children, it can be even easier given their short attention spans and how young they are. That’s why it’s important that lessons about compassion, empathy, sharing, and privilege be reinforced through solid examples.
A simple example that is very relevant to our context is that of Ramazan. While at school children are taught that the holy month is about learning to be empathetic, compassionate, and grateful for the blessings we have. And yet, for many children (and adults) the main takeaway after fasting is that after a day of thirst and hunger from sunrise to sunset, they can eat decadent food to their heart’s content. The aspect of relating to those less fortunate, of learning about the true spirit of the month ends up being lost in endless platters of pakoras and other delicacies. The act of giving charity during the holy month won’t mean much to children if they don’t understand the importance of welfare beyond it being an abstract thing to be performed.
There’s a way of involving children with the act of giving, and of making them conscious of the luck and blessings they enjoy, along with fostering in them a spirit of sharing. Various places offer iftar for free for those amongst us who are less fortunate- paying a visit and donating to those is a good way to make children understand the good work being done by these organizations, for example.
We have only a few years to try and inculcate basic humanistic values in children, and lessons learnt young stay in one’s mind for a long time. Let’s make the most of those precious childhood years.
The recent famine in Thar has left over 100 dead, including children. In a country with plentiful natural resources and an abundance of food, a crisis of this kind is nothing less a case of gross negligence and oversight. It is surprisingly easy to forget the sufferings of others when one does not have to endure life’s vagaries, or so it would seem for our political leaders and government officials.
Amartya Sen, noted economist and Nobel laureate, has asserted time and again that no functional democracy can justify a famine. It is evident, then, that our leaders have failed in fulfilling their basic duties to an entire group of Pakistani citizens. The Thar famine is a crisis on many levels- the first and foremost issue to be dealt with being the famine and the medical emergency faced by the region at this point. Secondly, the current emergency aside, famines are a recurring problem in the Tharparkar area- there is one every two to three years. Despite that, no efforts have been made to deal with what is primarily an infrastructural problem. The region’s wildlife and flora and fauna had started bearing the brunt of this famine before people started suffering, and despite that no notice was taken, nor were any measures implemented.
From a dearth of food to a lack of medical facilities, from ignorance about the problem until it escalated to the point where we currently stand to the lavish selection of food at a meeting held in Mithi to discuss hunger alleviation measures- all these things reek of insensitivity and ignorance.
As easy as it is to feel hopeless in times like these, what is more important is to come together as a community and help out the best way we can. This is a situation that asks for deep introspection into why a crisis of this magnitude arose. It requires us to empathize with the parents who have watched their children starve to death while their own bodies have simultaneously been wracked by pangs of hunger. We should ask ourselves how or when we became so insulated from the sufferings of others that it took the dedicated persistence of journalists to bring this issue to light, while it was more or less ignored by the rest of the country. We’re living in times when, understandably, most people believe in an “every man for himself” philosophy- Pakistan is not the most stable of countries at the point. However, does that mean we forget our sense of humanity?
This crisis calls for widespread education and awareness about the famine and what caused it. We can stress the importance of food and other donations, and no doubt, those are critical at this point; but we also need to think long-term and start a conversation about preventing such a calamity from happening again. There are two aspects to being a responsible citizen which are supremely important at this point: holding leaders accountable and questioning what they are doing for the people who have elected them, and being knowledgeable about our own duties to fellow citizens. Feeling helpless about the situation and playing blame games is not the answer- there is always time for arguments, but this moment calls for solid action.
Students of BHM School Korangi were engaged in a Partner in Reading session by the students of The Indus Academy on Saturday. The activity was organized as part of the Collaborative Libraries initiative in partnership with Jubilee General Insurance Company Limited - Pakistan
The Collaborative Libraries Project (CLP) in collaboration with Jubilee Life Insurance Company Limited has conducted 3 Partner in Reading sessions since the commencement of the new school term. Aga khan school kharadar held its first session with Al-Hamd School (Korangi). Arts and Science Academy - A project of the Happy Home School System Home welcomed students from Iqra Grammer School (Korangi) and Urooj Public School (Korangi) and lastly, Bay View High, Senior School entertained students from Muslim Public School (Korangi). Through these sessions, CLP aims to bring students from diverse backgrounds on one platform and introduce them to the magic of storytelling.
Compassionate Footprint project in collaboration with Consulate General of Switzerland in Karachi has planted 20 trees in Korangi UC 1.5 ground yesterday. The ground is being adopted by the community of Korangi with hopes of converting it into a useable public space. Plantation was attended by 250 children from 5 schools of Korangi.
It’s the universal truth commonly acknowledged; behind every successful man, there is a woman. Likewise behind the success of Akhuwat, there is a story of a resilient woman who wouldn’t compromise on her principles even when life was not kind to her. Dr. Amjad Saqib, founder of Akhuwat, gave a powerful, thought provoking session on Microfinance to 100 females who are currently enrolled under Mumkin project for Women Empowerment. Akhuwat is the only institute in Pakistan that offers interest free loans to the poor in society.
Compassionate Footprint project in collaboration with Consulate General of Switzerland in Karachi has planted 20 trees in Korangi UC 1.5 ground yesterday. The ground is being adopted by the community of Korangi with hopes of converting it into a useable public space. Plantation was attended by 250 children from 5 schools of Korangi.
