Jan 2008 | The Partner Classroom Project
The fifth grade of Khanott School in Sindh has become a partner classroom with Baldwin School, Pennsylvania, through Girls Learn International™ (GLI) - a non-profit learning initiative involving American school students in the international effort for universal girls’ education.
Both Baldwin and the Khanott School are all-girls schools.
As part of GLI, American students engage in a variety of educational, communication, advocacy and outreach projects on behalf of the Khanott School.
This past December, the Baldwin chapter’s seventeen members held a very successful fundraiser: they baked, decorated, and sold Gingerbread Girls, and raised over $200 to send to their Partner Classroom!
They have also completed their first Cultural Exchange Project. The students mapped out their lives by compiling a colorful scrapbook, including photos of life at Baldwin.
The Baldwin Chapter is off to a great start, and they are all looking forward to watching their chapter expand and flourish!
We at ibtida anticipate that this partnership will promote cultural understanding and will strengthen the values of peace and pluralism that ibtida promotes.
Oct 2007 | A New Children’s Pakistani Magazine
When two of Alice McLerran’s picture books were translated into Urdu and published by the BookGroup, a Pakistani non-profit educational organization, she found a friend in their translator, Amra Alam.
Their email exchanges continued as Amra became editor of a new children’s magazine in Pakistan, Suntra.
Amra has now translated three of Alice’s stories for Suntra, sending her friend sample issues as the stories appeared. Recognizing the value an attractive and affordable magazine could have for students in our schools, Alice has donated funds that allow ibtida to provide each of three schools with 15 year-long subscriptions.
We hope it may be possible to keep the issues coming in future years.
Jul 2007 | A Summer Camp at Nilore
In July 2007, Nilore Model School experienced a magical journey when Adnan Virani, an undergraduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, held a 3-week summer camp at the school.
Students and teachers were exposed to new curriculum areas such as music, theater, sports, health education, critical thinking, and self-expression with the aim of enhancing ideas of global citizenship, self-confidence, self-reliance, self-esteem, and leadership skills.
In Adnan’s own words:
“Ever since I was a child, I have always wanted to volunteer internationally. Everything fell into place when the spiritual leader of the Ismaili community asked the Ismailis globally to offer time and knowledge, as a pledge, to commemorate his Golden Jubilee as an Imam.
I started researching all possible NGO’s in Pakistan. One late night I came across IBITDA’s website. After being fascinated by IBTIDA’s aim to educate ultra poor youths in rural areas of Pakistan, I quickly decided to contact IBTIDA’s management.
The next few weeks seemed as if they only spoke of one thing and that was making a difference by giving the best.
In America I put together a team of educated professionals to create motivating and exciting content for the school. Our strategy was to tailor the content so that it takes into consideration available resources and level of comprehension. The process was vigorous and much was left open due to our lack of understanding of cultural norms.
I arrived at Nilore on July 18th, 2007. Upon arriving I was introduced to the teachers and my first question was, “Are you ready to start?” and surprisingly they responded “yes” with enthusiasm.
I instantly felt at that moment that I was at the right place at the right time. The first week of camp I was very involved in coaching the teachers. By the time the second week rolled around, I noticed a progressive change in everyone. The teachers had transformed into counselors and managed all small issues by themselves or collectively as a group.
Week three was like I was invisible, it was then I realized that the camp was self-sustaining and the counselors were now focused on taking camp to the next level.
The camp, people, and culture were all components that gave me a personalized experience that I will never forget.
Thank you, IBTIDA & Nilore Model School.”
