Charter For Compassion

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The Coordinator’s project started under the Compassionate School Network in 2013-Date The very first school CfC worked was Government Girls Intelligence School Sultanabad, which was an adopted school by Mr. Moinuddin Haider. CfC signed an MoU in order to take care of the Management of the school, this included the monitoring of the Government Staff, hiring of Coordinators (Subject Specific) and school coordinators. CfC was also responsible for training the staff. There are three schools that come under the Moinuddin Haider’s Adoptee list.

GGELS Intelligence, M.T Khan Road
Government Girls Primary School-Sultanabad
Government Model Dini Madrasah And College (For Boys) Karachi
Under CfC’s management these schools were able to register progress in the following ways:
- New subject specialists who were hired, there was an improvement in academic performance of students by 40% in a mere 2 years’ time
- School Coordinators were hired in order to control and also monitor the school performance, this has helped school to reach its maximum potential with results, extracurricular activities, admissions and also with teacher’s development (training and capacity development)
- Teacher Training in all aspects including pedagogy, class management, self-compassion (to ensure teacher retention/prevent teacher burnout), and other non-traditional teaching methodologies
- Managerial staff training in all aspects
- Day to day operations
- Compassionate skills training
- Hired linear staff
- Integrated learning classes
- Extra-Curricular activities have been introduced
Adopted Campus Government Girls Lower Secondary School (DSEMIS- 408180407) Hussain Choher, Gadap (Education City), District Malir
Girls B Primary School SEMIS code 408180008

This school was officially taken over by the President, Charter for Compassion in 2014 CfC since then have been involved, the project was taken over under Sindh Education Foundation adopt a school programme. These were ghost schools at the time when they were taken over. The schools are running under the Public Private Model with half government and half primary teachers. The school is running on the EMO model with a private coordinator, nurse and an academic associate. Since the school was taken over following have been achieved till date:

Enrollment of students (actual)
Returning of ghost teachers to schools
Hired new subject specialists who were hired.
Hired School Coordinator in order to control and also monitor the school performance, this has helped school to reach its maximum potential with results, extracurricular activities, admissions and also with teacher’s development (training and capacity development)
Teacher Training in all aspects
Managerial staff training in all aspects
Day to day operations
Compassionate skills training
Hired linear staff
Integrated learning classes
Extra-Curricular activities have been introduced

All the mentioned above schools are still running with same zeal and zest. Apart from the above mentioned the school now has:

Basic facilities:

The school with all its facilities provides conducive learning environment for the learners. All classrooms have age appropriate furniture for comfortable teaching and learning activities.
Now the school has additional building in this academic year 2018 which has a capacity of 8 classrooms and 2 functional washrooms. Thus altogether we have 15 classrooms, 1 library, 1 computer lab, a health unit and a community hall with appropriate teaching and learning material.
A solar panel has been installed for the school building which provides electricity to all classes and also run computer lab, health unit during the school hours. It also facilitates to operate boring machine to store the water in the school tanks.
Adopter has also provided water filter machine to provide clean drinking water for students.
By the support of SMC fund a dispenser has been purchased for school staff this year which provides clean cold water.
7 washrooms/toilets are well functional and students use them in proper way.
Adopter has provided comfortable chairs and tables to all the students and teachers.
2 LCDS have been provided to ECD sections by the help of SMC fund in this academic year and core subjects have also been integrated with ICT. ECD students and teachers benefit from this facility and enjoy the learning.

Private Schools being run under the Coordinator’s project since 2013-these schools are also part of the Compassionate School Network:

School	Address	Branches
Al-Humd School	Sector 32/B, H#No. 453, Korangi No. 1.5 Karachi.	2
Tauheed Public School	A-48, Sec 8/A Hazrat Bilal Colony, K.I.A Karachi.	2
Usman Public School	House No.#29-30, Area 36-C Korangi No. 5.	1
Muslim Public School	Korangi No. 1 Karachi	1
Johar Public School	House No. ls-32, Sec 33/D Korangi.	1
Iqra Grammar School	Sec 32-A Korangi No. 1.5 Karachi.	2
Pacific Grammar School	Korangi No. 5 Double Room Korangi.	1
Al-Seher Academy	Korangi NO. 2.5.	1

CfC has been a managing partner with the above-mentioned schools, the Coordinators private school model is different from the Government school. The private school Coordinator’s project run on the following model.

CfC is involved in selecting the HM which also acts as a coordinator
Conduct interviews
Create Libraries
Develop Management Tools
Monitor teacher’s performance
Conduct Extra-Curricular activities
Train Parents
Counsel students

Since these are the private schools it is easier to operate them as compared to government schools.

Karen Armstrong's 2008 TED Prize

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.

Ruhbaru

Ruhbaru (face to face) is an online mental health and counseling platform. Ruhbaru provides psycho-education on the different mental health issues faced by people in order to remove the stigma; self-assessments of wellbeing and compassionate skills among the people; and online consultations with psychologists and psychiatrists, and free counseling services.

Vision:

We at Ruhbaru envision and strive towards making Pakistan where mental health is no longer a taboo and where cheap and no cost solutions are available for every Pakistani.

Mission

Ruhbaru aims to increase the awareness regarding mental health and well-being through its online platforms and awareness and to educate the general population of Pakistan about different aspects of mental health and to provide top quality free and low-cost consultation and assistance in all Pakistani languages.

Objectives

The aim of Ruhbaru is to create mental health awareness and wellbeing among the people of Pakistan. Ruhbaru hopes to achieve this by:

Create mental health awareness among the people through its online platform and mental health talks

Educate the people about the different psychological and mental health issues one faces such as anxiety, depression, stress, etc. and how to manage them

Provide self-assessments for people to evaluate and learn more about their mental health

Provide online therapy sessions and free counseling to the people through its platform.

Target Audience

The Target Market for Ruhbaru are individuals of all ages from the rural and urban areas, Persons with Disabilities and the LGBT community; who do not have easy access to the mental health services due to financial, physical or social reasons.

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.

COMPASSION IN HEALTHCARE

In healthcare a patient’s care and subsequent satisfaction should be top priority. If this level of care is compromised, it has the potential to be disastrous. We feel that compassion and medical work in general are inseparable from each other if Staff and clients want to make the most out of their medical appointments.

How do you make sure that the healthcare system is full of individuals who have the right attributes to work in an environment which is supposed to exude compassion and kindness all day long, all week long? How can we make sure health professionals engage with their patients in a sensitive manner in an attempt to build a rapport with them?

Charter for Compassion’s nine compassionate skills will act as a guideline for healthcare professionals in institutes where qualities like the ones mentioned above are lacking

Medical professionals don’t always provide the right kind for pastoral care that patients need. Doctors are trained to give medical advice but they may not necessarily be excellent councilors or communicators. Our solution is to provide hospital staff with a set of guidelines to refer to, preventing the likelihood of their patients being subjected to negligence in some form or another.

Maintaining high standards in healthcare institutes is of very high importance. If the staff don’t put our nine compassionate skills into practice, their standards may drop. This can lead to questionable healthcare practices and ethics creeping into the daily practices of healthcare professionals. The patients will be the ones that end up suffering as a result of these malpractices. Our methods are designed to prevent this from happening and to make sure that compassion is not forgotten while a patient is in care.

Charter for Compassion’s idea of compassionate healthcare is a pioneering initiative. We are already collaborating with the Agha Khan University Hospital where we conducted our compassionate skills training, spanning over 3 weeks. We trained and mentored hospital staff including head nurses, head doctors and admin staff. This received an incredibly positive reception hence why we are now looking to expand to other medical institutes.

Compassionate School Network

The Compassionate School Network (CSN) 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.

Our Aim:

The Compassionate School Network (CSN) is the first of its’ kind in the world; introduced by Charter for Compassion with emphasis on teaching compassion to every student in their most important learning years. Our goal is to empower compassionate youth who will then grow up to become compassionate adults in a more tolerant and peaceful society. CSN started in December 2012 after conducting two years of extensive research on how to integrate compassion into the daily lives of Pakistani students.

How we work:

CfC aspires to transform our society through education and training; we provide teachers the tools and training they require. Through our innovative social programs, we hope to inspire more compassionate behavior. Each lesson comprises of activities, projects, class exercises and discussions to explore Charter for Compassion’s nine compassionate skills. These being the following: mindfulness, courage, altruism, empathy, self-compassion, forgiveness, gratitude, humility and integrity.

We hope this will lead to a significant societal transformation. CSN intends to boost harmony and respect amongst the youth in Karachi, through incorporating compassionate educational and sports-based programs.

Current Status:

200 schools are part of CSN’s network, while 70 schools are actively participating in CSN’s program, out of which 42 reside in high-income groups and 28 cater to children from low-income areas in Karachi.

Achievements:

Over the years, CfC has trained 5,000 teachers in conflict management and peace building; hence these teachings have trickled down to over 35,000 students in the city. The donor for this project is the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Recently CfC has also collaborated with DAI and is building a total of 40 schools with 450 teachers in 6 underprivileged communities across Karachi. An anti-bullying campaign has been added to this program to further reinforce the need for compassion.

HUMQADAM

HumQadam is an initiative which is run 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 and to prevent the negative long lasting psychological, and in extreme cases, physical impact on students.

The program will include teacher training sessions designed and conducted by professional psychologists; equipping them with techniques and strategies to monitor aggressive student behavior and counter it by encouraging positive interaction amongst them instead. Training sessions will try to use the nine skills of compassion as a tool for countering negative behavioral patterns.

A texting platform will be set up where students can text the number 8398. This is for students who need a platform or a means to report negative experiences. 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 aggressive behavior. A selection of students from each school will lead the anti-bullying campaign in their respective schools. Students will participate in resilience drives where they will be visited by other schools in the community to share their schools’ challenges and successes. Positive intervention amongst like-minded students will foster a compassionate and healthy community.

After the successful implementation of CSN in schools across the country, we aim 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!

WAY FORWARD?

After the successful implementation of Compassionate Schools across the country, we hope to see 5000 schools and universities across Pakistan and the rest of the world by the year 2020.

Mumkin

The first step in bringing about positive and lasting changes in our society is to acknowledge that inequality does exist. In our society in particular it does so in abundance. However, we are in the process of taking the next step which is making sure something is being done about it. This has led us to persist in ensuring that power is put back into the hands of those who have suffered injustices by virtue of their, class, gender or ethnic and religious background.

Mumkin itself specifically involves empowering and mobilizing underprivileged females, gradually putting them in a position to be agents for change in their communities. Mumkin shows full belief in the participants of its’ courses, while maintaining that anything is possible for the women of today’s world if the correct support system is put in place.

The communities Mumkin operates in include underprivileged communities such as Lyari, Landhi, Orangi, Korangi and Sultanabad. Following sufficient success in the aforementioned districts of Karachi, we will look to bring our initiative to the rest of Sindh, including other poverty-stricken localities throughout the province.

Whilst working very closely with Aman Foundation, Mumkin offers vocational training to 80 women in basic Computer operating skills and Basic Dress Making. Our set up includes six month training courses across three learning centers, consisting of an estimate of 75 females, including teachers and housewives from the ages of 19-45 years old. It is a unique initiative consisting of fashion design, Entrepreneurship and personal development training, targeting disadvantaged women.

We bring the training directly to our students to work towards alleviating their socio-economic limitations and giving them a social platform in their communities where we aim to instill our core principles. Our focus includes emphasizing crucial values such as compassion, gender equality and the notion of redefining the status of women in our society through promoting female empowerment and self-sufficiency among women.

Female empowerment involves raising awareness about women among women and paving the way for their success. It is therefore key for us to create an environment that is conducive for women and other marginalized groups in our society to relinquish control and challenge existing socio-economic power relations. We are breaking barriers and defying norms by normalizing altruism and generosity through compassion and our movement prides itself on being the torchbearers of social change and Women’s rights in Karachi thus we look to pull together to ensure that the rest of society follows suit.

Compassionate Footprint Initiative

Since the occurrence of the most devastating heat wave in Karachi’s history in 2015, the city witnessed a devastating loss of more than 1200 lives. This warranted immediate action, hence leading to the creation of the Compassionate Footprint Initiative. Our teams went into immediate overdrive to spread awareness about the environment. Our target audience were mainly schools and we supplemented our awareness campaign with a plantation drive to increase the strength of our message.

AIM

The Compassionate Footprint project focuses on bringing about positive behavioral changes in privileged and underprivileged 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 about different communities. We aim to promote the idea mentioned above in various schools in Karachi and we want compassionate behavior to be instilled in to the students of these schools by designing initiatives that prepare them to gain ownership of their environment and practice peaceful behavior.

This project seeks to support vulnerable individuals and communities by creating opportunities and fostering positive values such as of pride, unity, and resilience which undermine violence and aggression

CURRENT STATUS

The project kicked off by registering 100 schools (50 privileged schools and 50 underprivileged schools from the 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 explain to them the purpose of this activity.

A peace education debate was also part of this initiative for students to be able to share peace building ideas. The participants in 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 from Karachi participated in these debates and three rounds were held. The debate was focused on various ways to make Karachi a safer and more compassionate city which would also include: providing quality education to all children, making our streets safe and the rule of law being applied to each and every person. Being equal before the law and recognizing all Karachiites as being equal citizens regardless of their religion, socio-economic status or race is paramount to us.

This initiative produced a healthy dialogue and more collaboration between privileged and less privileged schools. Students from diverse backgrounds came together as one to share ideas and deliver speeches which left people many people truly amazed.

ACHIEVEMENTS

A remarkable initiative by CfC named “Adopt a Tree” strengthened communication amongst privileged and underprivileged students by planting trees in each other’s school. This was to signify the importance of accepting diversity, working together and treating each other with compassion. This drive highlights the crux of CfC’s ethos of instilling feelings of empathy, humility, altruism and mindfulness in our society’s 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 to parks where we will utilize walls to create artwork. Small theatrical performances will also be conducted by students to build a bridge of compassion between the two communities through arts, theater and environmentalism.

With 400 schools and 28 universities as part of the Compassionate Karachi initiative, we wish to use this vast network to create awareness about the Compassionate Footprint Initiative and identify individuals and institutions eager to combat their carbon footprint by pledging to plant and then adopt trees in the city of Karachi.

WAY FORWARD?

Plantation drives, water drives, public service assignments and school workshops are some of the projects that we have undertaken. In the near future, this project will ideally expand to parks. We plan to open environment clubs in many underserved schools in Karachi. We will teach sustainability-focused methods for giving back to nature. This includes activities such as debate competitions, parks maintenance and renovation work. We wish to also identify individuals and institutions who are eager to combat their carbon footprint by pledging to plant and then adopt as many as 100,000 trees in the city of Karachi.

Compassionate Sports

The Charter for Compassion Cricket Club was established on the 1st February 2014, successfully having engaged 1200 underprivileged children within the space of two months. Our committed coaches were deployed to select talented young cricketers and motivate committed players in the following areas of Karachi: Korangi, Lyari Sultanabad and Hijrat Colony. Around 270 children from these areas have now been reached, some of whom have been pulled away from violent surroundings.

In September 2017 we equipped 15 literacy centers across 4 districts in Sindh, consisting of 4000 learners with a variety of sports equipment. This was done in the hope of promoting healthy and active lifestyles. In October 2017 we organized a sport’s week for 4 government schools in Sukkur and Khairpur for approximately 3500 students to take part in sporting activities and in November 2017 we launched a cricket camp at the Eid Gah Nazimabad cricket ground.

Charter for Compassion’s hope is to see cricket players from different areas interacting with each other, embracing each other’s diversity and showing respect and tolerance towards each other. If players can come together as friends on the field or learn a thing or two from witnessing teamwork in action, it would be a welcomed bonus in our eyes as engaging with others in a team environment is a good habit to get into and can improve an individual’s personal development.

There are numerous benefits of getting young cricketers involved in club cricket which go way beyond just being a way of keeping oneself occupied. Being part of a sporting community can be a real lifesaver and a positive distraction for many young individuals. We feel that the least we can do is provide keen young cricketers with adequate facilities. In some cases this is the only outlet available to them, thus the funds we put into making sure that the equipment and the running of tournaments and practices sessions are up to scratch, go a very long way.

Cricket is a game that gives those who play it many subtle life lessons and many fall in and out of love with the game as it is a sport that requires you to be patient, perseverant and calculated for long periods of time. Pakistan happens to be a country that is cricket mad and our set up may even produce the next Wasim Akram or Shahid Afridi if that talent is nurtured properly. If you work at your game, cricket can be very rewarding. Charter for Compassion’s very own cricket club with its’ coaches and talent scouts have been responsible for making sure that raw talent of the kind mentioned above isn’t neglected in less privileged areas of Karachi.

Compassion, mindfulness, courage, integrity and forgiveness are four skills which Charter for Compassion would like to pay special attention to. Our intentions are to go about imparting the aforementioned Compassionate skills that are central to our organization’s ethos and expanding this project of ours by delivering more sporting equipment to literacy centers and launching more cricket camps in the rest of Sindh and beyond.

Compassionate Community Network

Compassionate Community Network was started by CfC and focuses on three main stakeholders 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 stakeholders.

Compassionate Sports

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

EBM Arts Competition

Dream, believe and achieve is the philosophy we carry; in order to do that, it is very important to support the cause of Arts. Children are wonders of imagination therefore, Charter for Compassion, along with English Biscuit Manufacturers (EBM) brought forward an art 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 the 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.

AIM

This competition focused on opening 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 can learn and adopt these philosophies in their life. This would also help them discover their capabilities and become more conscious individuals.

ART COMPETITION AT ITS PEAK

The event started off with an interactive story telling session, about compassion, by trainer & consultant Mr. Zohair Alli bhoy, who focused on all nine skills CfC Curriculum; Courage, Empathy, Gratitude, Forgiveness, Humility, Self-Compassion, Altruism, Mindfulness & Integrity. Ms. Anushe Hussain, 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 b0eginning 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 winners. The students enjoyed the outdoor environment and were absorbed in their artworks. Thoughts of compassionate were smeared everywhere!

“Education is Compassion,” said one teacher. “The world we are living in shows a little display of compassion, but the Compassionate School Network has helped my students develop the courage to display compassion towards fellow classmates, 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 the character building of our students, making them better human beings”, said by School Principal.

Volunteers from different universities also took part in it, actively learning from student thoughts themselves.

The honorable judges of this competition included: Nafisa Rizvi, Nurayah Nabi Sheikh, Rabeya Jalil, Arshad Faruqi, Scheherzade Junejo and Samar Hussain.

Achievements

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! 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!

Compassionate Schools in Thar

Charter for Compassion Pakistan in collaboration with the Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) manage three primary schools in small villages in the Tharparkar District of Sindh. The villages we will be attending to include Biitra, Mansingh Bheel and Thariyo Halepota.

AIMS

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 schools by introducing innovative measures to modernize the education system, also addressing management gaps, maintaining and upgrading school buildings and their facilities. It is essential to work closely with teachers, school staff, school management committees and the surrounding communities.

Achievements

From the 1st of August till 15th of October, 2017 most of the work we did was completed. Including getting students to take part in monthly assessment tests, trying to improve everyone’s attendance, and running teacher training programs.

Improved Students' Enrollment and Retention:

Since they handed over all three schools in the Tharparkar District to us, we have demonstrated the need for better administration while the response from the locals was more than positive.

Our field coordinators and staff from each school played a massive role in making sure the admissions ran smoothly. During the so called ‘Admissions drive’ which we hosted, we registered around 465 admissions for Tharparkar alone. Not to mention 176 students from Mansingh Bheel, 158 students from Thariyo and 131 students from Bittra. The process is still on going and will do so until we reach our target of 180 students per school. Previously these areas were lacking educational facilities. However, now the situation is entirely different and the parents are starting to look forward to sending their children to school.

In the month of August, the student’s average attendance was 75%, 78% and 70% in Mansingh Bheel, Thariyo and Bittra respectively and as a whole, the average attendance was 74%.

In the month of September, the student’s average attendance was 76%, 97% and 75% in Mansingh Bheel, Thariyo and Bittra and the average attendance as a whole was 83%.

In the month of October, the student’s average attendance was 67%, 88% and 82% in Mansingh Bheel, Thariyo and Bittra respectively, and 71% as a whole.

These statistics prove that the administrative progress at each school has been satisfactory. 6 different classes in each school (Kindergarten- 5th Grade) are currently in operation. These Classes are conducted in a more interactive manner to keep the students engaged and broaden their learning capacities.

Improved Teachers’ Availability and Attendance:

Staff attendance during the months of August and September at the schools in Tharparkar remained at 93% and 95%, respectively; the 5 to 7% lack of staff attendance was due to illness. Initially the teachers delivered lectures in Sindhi and English but they also gradually started to switch between Urdu and English as well. The students are now able to engage in class activities properly whilst also developing a deeper interests in their studies.

Teacher assessment tests are also being conducted on a regular basis to analyze teacher suitability. The teachers will also deliver learning, based on the training they receive from us.

Training and Capacity Building of Staff

In the month of August 2017, a six day training program and a post-evaluation test, lasting one day, was held at the TSF. There were 23 participants present, including teaching and non-teaching staff. The objective of the training was to familiarize the teachers with new teaching methods like the ones practiced in top tier private schools in Pakistan and the rest of the world. The idea is to get the teachers certified to put them in a position to implement tried and tested teaching methods.

Similarly, four-day training sessions were held at the Thariyo Halepota School in September 2017. There were 27 participates present, including teaching and non-teaching staff from all three of the schools in Tharparkar. The following activities were covered during these four days:

A Pre-Evaluation test

Training to teach Urdu

Training to teach English

Training to teach Science and Math

A Post- Evaluation Test

Training Evaluation

Independence Day celebrations and other cultural activities:

On Independence Day, students and teachers from all three schools in Tharparkar came together to engage in the following ceremonies and activities:

National Anthem.

Quaid-e-Azam Speech.

Gayatri Mantra (Hindu celebration)

Urdu and Sindhi Dua (prayers)

Urdu and Sindhi Poetry.

On the 12th of September an event was held in Thar where students from each school participated in different activities. Detailed plans were made by CfC and the Engro Education Manager.

Here are the activities which students prepared and performed:

The National Anthem of Pakistan

Round and round the world we go.

Jugnoo and Bulbul play

Sindhi Cultural Dance

The confidence and enthusiasm of the students were noteworthy and well-appreciated by the Chief Guests and other officials. It was a very positive sign to see students beginning to adopt the right learning attitude and taking part in extra-curricular activities.

The distribution of Uniforms and School Shoes:

We contacted different shoe suppliers at “Islam kot” to order shoes for the students and hand them out amongst them. Uniforms were also distributed to them on different occasions. This will encourage the students to set an example by cultivating generosity and the notion of sharing and caring.

Charter for Compassion along with SECMC will continue to maximize their efforts to promote quality education for everyone in remote areas of Sindh.

Compassionate Children

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.

Thar

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.

Bridges

We are now in the process of trying to build a strong and cohesive community with a learning center where our society’s disparities are at their most severe around the Qayyumabad Bridge in Karachi. The name given to this project is significant as it is a fitting metaphor for the work we are doing and what we are trying to achieve around the Qayyumabad Bridge in terms of eliminating social disparities and closing the gap between rich and poor.

Our plan is to provide a safe haven for children who have parents who are often drug addicts, homeless or involved in crime. Students from the college campus near the bridge will be lending their support voluntarily as tutors and mentors to the impoverished children whose families reside under the bridge, focusing mainly on the following skills:

Literacy, numeracy, Urdu, Arts and crafts, physical education and general knowledge. Not forgetting Charter for Compassion’s nine compassionate skills and all kinds of other fun learning activities to engage the children’s imagination in a school setting.

Charter for compassion hopes to do all it can to encourage cohesion and compassionate behavior. We want to see privileged members of the community taking a step back and perhaps stopping themselves in their tracks for a moment and lending a helpful hand to those who have suffered as a result of our society’s injustices.

Something is better than nothing is the theory we are trying to put into practice and sharing knowledge can make a big difference. A little help goes a long way, especially if the recipients have almost nothing to start off with.

Fixing the damage that has been done to our society requires fortunate individuals to make concessions and sacrifice some of their comfort for the betterment of the rest of society. This is a notion that the co-founder of our company Karen Armstrong continues to reiterate. Karen feels this is absolutely essential if we are going to bring about a more compassionate and caring society.

The strength of this project rests in the fact that all academic and non-academic activities are being carried out by volunteers. Through this interaction, these volunteers will bring people together in an effort to claim collective ownership of our city.

Compassionate Skills