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.

Compassion at the Heart of Religion

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 Armstrong'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.

Charter website launched November 12, 2008

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

Charter Unveiled November 12, 2009

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

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.

Compassionate School Network (Schools)

Landhi

Aaj School

Akhtar Model Secondary School

Sunrise Schooling System

Usman Public High School Campus I & II

Al-Hamd Islamic School

Malir

Malir Public School

Headway School

Pakistan Cambridge Grammar School

Ghazali Grammar Higher Secondary School- Ghazi Town

Ghazali Grammar Higher Secondary School- Salman Farsi

Korangi

Iqra Foundation High School

Muslim Foundation Public School

New Vision Public School

Urooj Top City School

Urooj Public school

Kiamari

Pak-Hills High School Campus I

Pak-Hills High School Campus II

Muqaddas English Grammar School

Versatile Education Academy Campus I

Versatile Education Academy Campus II

Saddar

The Gaurdian School

Al Anas Academy

Salt Lake Public School Campus I

Salt Lake Public School Campus II

Darul Arqam Academy

Essani Children’s Academy

Bin Qasim Town

Al-Shams Public School Campus I

Al-Shams Public School Campus II

Cherat Public School

E-Complex College

The Elonera School System

EMO- a project of Charter for Compassion

To echo the sentiment of the founder of our initiative Amin Hashwani, cohesion and coexistence would seem like less of a tedious task if we were all to lock ourselves in a room and remain exclusively self-critical until we reach a solution. Charter for Compassion’s Golden Rule for bringing about mutual acceptance and tolerance is “treat others the same way we wish to be treated”.

The aforementioned notions are what our projects and the work we do with the Education and Literacy departments of the Government of Sindh revolves around. After consistent efforts by Charter to make humanitarianism commonplace in all corners of Pakistan; CfC went one step further with this particular project. The EMO project by CfC will involve us going about trying to make sure that every child in the province is not only educated without needing financial aid, but also given quality education, good enough to compete with private schools. Many of these students may also go on to eventually earn a living through teaching.

Our vision is to empower the younger generations and equip with them with the right tools to be able to go toe to toe with students from privileged backgrounds. Making free and compulsory education a legal obligation is a must and would mean that quality education can be attained by anyone, regardless of an individual’s background.

Operating since the 25th of February 2016, this project has been successful in opening up several schools and has started educating millions of people in areas like Sukkur and Khairpur. We hope to spread as rapidly as possible, targeting other areas in Sindh.

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.

Collaborative Libraries Project

In the advent of technology and e-books, the reading culture in libraries is becoming extinct. What is more, the lack of libraries in our country is depriving the children of today of the fulfilling and gratifying experience of reading books.

Bearing this in mind; 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 in Korangi, Lyari and the Shireen Jinnah Colony impacting over 5000 students who had never experienced a library before.

AIM

The idea behind 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. Children will also be taught the importance of libraries and positive reading habits.

Current Status

ACHIEVEMENTS

Embarking upon a wonderful journey in January 2016 and continuing until January 2017, CLP has conducted over 30 sessions with various partner schools and organizations.

To further facilitate these libraries, a collaboration was formed with 15 privileged schools (Bayview High School, Indus Academy, Frobel’s and Mrs. Haque Academy amongst others) that have gone into partnership with CfC. Countless activities were conducted to encourage 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 to highlight 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 selected stories are based specifically on the 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 enjoyed this interaction. At Indus Academy Clifton during the reading of ‘Ferdinand’ by Munro Leaf, students from the Johar Public School in Korangi helped students from Indus read the story in Urdu.

A large-scale reading event was organized in April where 11 underprivileged school students acted out their favorite stories. ‘Partner in Reading’ involved over 1000 students from the school network which helped them learn compassionate behavior.

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 which has hosted at the Oxford University Press head office by students of the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) as a way to encourage collaboration with like-minded organizations. More than 250 students participated in this activity. We are incredibly grateful for the work done by 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. Our thanks go out to Mrs. Juveria Baig for leading the Capstone team in their thorough work on the CLP project.

Storytelling

Shaping young minds through stories

Adopt a Library

With over 400 schools participating in Compassionate Karachi, most of them have decided to adopt a library in support of the cause. The adopting schools had the responsibility of conducting annual book drives that help collect books from the students. These books will then be gifted to underserved schools for their library.

The schools where the libraries will be built, will perform the following tasks:

Sorting books

Setting up annual compassionate book drives

Arranging visits to libraries

Participate in drama readings

Compiling and sharing reading material

Inducting more children into the community

Library Instillations

With the books being provided by the privileged schools, CfC undertakes the responsibility to provide the following to the schools who will build a library:

Chairs for students

Tables

Shelves

Librarians Desk

Computer system for the librarian and students to view educational videos

In addition to this CfC will do painting work, redo the floors and install solar powered lights and fans. Our efforts are aimed at creating an inviting and 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 conditions in the libraries and to make sure that the reading culture continues to progress. Surveys are also carried out based on how the students 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 to be circulated amongst underserved schools, adding further 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 years to come.

WAY FORWARD?

We plan to inaugurate 10 new libraries. To achieve this, regular visits are scheduled to the schools where libraries are needed the most and where libraries have already been established. The latter is carried out so that our facilities are on par with our envisioned standards.

TESTIMONIALS

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

Compassionate Business Quotient

Compassionate Business Quotient by Charter for Compassion is form of corporate training is meant 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-based training in organizations.

Compassionate business practices can not only help businesses improve financial performance, but also encourage behavior where compassion is a fundamental part of an organization’s values. Compassionate behavior between an organization and stakeholders can make for a more productive workplace and improved work ethics; Also resulting in improved corporate relations, decreased turnover costs and high employee productivity.

CBQ assists in the overall cultural development of an organization, helping to build strong employer-employee relationships, enhanced organizational performance and better employee satisfaction. Additionally we will guide our clients towards improving their interpersonal skills by also touching on team-building, conflict resolution and intrinsic motivational skills.

Happy employees lead to improved customer service. Employees in positive moods are more willing to help their peers and provide customer service on their own accord. In doing so, they boost the productivity levels of their colleagues as well as boosting their own commitment and level of engagement.

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.

Ramzaan Challenge Activity

Research indicates that individuals who develop positive reading habits at an early age tend to cultivate better comprehension skills. Unfortunately with the rising trend in prioritizing various technologies over a set of books, this age-old skill is seldom worked on.

The Idea:

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 for libraries in schools. This is because most of the school libraries are either not up-to-date or do not have the resources. One 12-year-old participant spent his Ramzaan collecting books which he would later pass on to a school in Lyari, where the concept of a library is non-existent.

The city of Karachi has 41 public libraries. Many of these are either inaccessible to the general public due to their location or they are beyond repair.

Inspired by compassionate children like the one mentioned above, CfC has decided to take this initiative forward on a city wide scale and create libraries in schools where facilities like these are missing, thereby promoting reading in underprivileged schools in Karachi.

Sigining Agreement

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.

Charter for Compassion at the Karachi Literature Festival

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

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.

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

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.

BHM School Korangi were engaged in a Partner in Reading session

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

Partner in Reading sessions (CLP)

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.

Adopt A Tree (FOOTPRINT)

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.

Session on Microfinance (MUMKIN)

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.

Adopt A TREE (FOOTPRINT)

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.

Employee Engagement Initiative

ENGAGING in activities relating to the CLP.

INSPIRING students through compassionate talks.

MENTORING students in Big Sister and Big Brother Programs.

We plan on creating a society within the org which will form into one or more of the following clubs:

Dramatic Reading

Compassionate Talks

Big Sister & Big Brother Program

To make things more meaningful, it is important to know our audience and assess their level of compassion. This will help us to match people accordingly plus it will hopefully create a ripple effect within the org.

Dramatic Readers Club:
This will start off with multiple sessions inside the schools at their own convenience. Opening dates will be shared in advance with DR Club members. Individuals will be requested to fill in based on their availability. The year will end with a final ceremony where the students will perform for all the other schools at a common venue.

Compassionate Talks:
This will take place in both Privileged as well as underprivileged schools. Members of Jubilee Life Insurance will be asked to visit schools and give talks to them with the objective of inspiring them and creating awareness about what it means to be an adult and how to apply compassion in the workplace.

Big Sister and Big Brother:
These mentors will be paired up with students for a period of 10 weeks (to be revised if an extension is needed). The students will then be able to learn firsthand from their ‘Bigs’ (JLI employees) who will guide them just like an elder sibling throughout the duration of the initiative.

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 Schools – Badin

Over the past five years, Education in Sindh has plummeted due to the lack of resources. This includes a lack of qualified staff, water shortages and no electricity. As of today, about three million children are missing out on an education.

The Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) has nonetheless launched academic programs to promote private school education in rural Sindh (PPRS) under a public-private partnership scheme. The program initially launched under SERP-I in 2008-09 continues as a part of SERP-II. The program was designed by the SEF in collaboration with the reform support unit and the World Bank.

Our program supports the establishment and management of publicly funded private schools in underprivileged areas across Eight Schools in Badin district (Sindh) that rank poorly along three indicators: The number of school children from the ages of 5 to 16 years old who are not in education, the distance to the nearest government school and lastly, the partner’s ability to run and manage the schools.

Charter for Compassion Pakistan has collaborated with the Sindh Education Foundation and signed a contract with them on the 20th December 2017 in order to take control of eight schools in Badin. These schools are located in underserved areas in Badin. There were various unique challenges that we had to deal with. For instance, student names were presented in the GR directory but there was no proof whatsoever of them attending the schools. CfC has been looking after student attendance, student learning outcomes, assessment plans and the career development of teachers as well students. This will eventually be managed by working hand in hand with the local community. Education means providing clear innovation for personal growth accompanied by CfC’s nine compassionate skills which are integrated in to the formal education system. Since having acquired the school, we have also designed and applied different criteria to hire quality teachers.

The main objectives are to provide primary and secondary school education to the local population in rural areas of Sindh, to engage/retain students and to simultaneously create an inviting educational environment.

AALTP

The Adult and Adolescent Learning and Training Program (AALTP) provides accelerated non-formal education to vulnerable adolescents and basic functional literacy for adults as well as certified vocational training courses.

Charter for Compassion Pakistan signed an agreement with the Sindh Education Foundation on the 17th of April 2017, covering 15 centers and targeting approximately 4,000 learners. In total CFC has established 12 centers in Karachi, 1 Centre in Badin, 1 Centre in Sukkur and 1 in Khairpur.

CfC will impart the skills taught in its’ AALTP Course within the space of 3 years. The AALTP course comprises of 3 Packages- ‘Package A’ is designed for Katchi (Grade I, duration 8 months), ‘Package B’ is designed for Grade II / Grade III (duration also 8 months) and ‘Package C’ is designed for Grade IV and Grade V (duration 14 months).”

The purpose of intensive learning is fairly self-explanatory. However its’ effectiveness should not be underestimated as a lot can be achieved in the right learning environment. Tailor made learning and tutoring can work wonders for students who are struggling or have missed out on learning during formal education. Learning of this kind targets the gaps in a student’s knowledge and can make a huge difference to a student’s grades.

Knowing that anything can be accomplished at any age with the right kind of guidance and sufficient preparation brings a lot of hope to students who otherwise do not have many future prospects. Students can pick up on a lot in short space of time and will consequently be in a position to eventually put those skills into practice. This is precisely what the AALTP program strives towards.