Monday, November 25, 2013

Education Fund for Sindh - EFS & BRAC Pakistan Join Hands with the Support of UK Government’s DFID to Spread Education in Sindh

Monday, November 25, 2013
In a meeting held today by Education Fund for Sindh (EFS), EFS provided a commitment of PKR 284.3 million to BRAC Pakistan under one of its programmes, which supports sustainable partnerships for providing quality education in underprivileged communities of Sindh.

The agreement provides for establishing 700 schools in the districts of Karachi, Khairpur and Qambar Shahdad Kot for 21,000 children, with special focus on girls’ education, where they will get an opportunity to pursue quality education. The agreement will remain valid for one year and will be renewed on an annual basis.

This outreach programme establishes schools in far-flung and under-privileged areas of Sindh to provide education to out of school children who would not have had a chance to attend school otherwise.

Education Fund for Sindh (EFS), is a not-for-profit company (a company set up under section 42 of the Companies Ordinance, 1984) which addresses the current education crisis in Pakistan through a multi-faceted strategy that focuses on grass-root level support to families, capacity building of schools and NGO partnering for extensive reach of its programs that focus on identifying out of school children and providing access to school education. EFS’s primary funding partner at the moment is the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), with which EFS is a listed project.

Under the Intermediaries programme EFS provides access to education by funding existing private educational organizations in Sindh and the key to this programme is to gain synergies in leveraging existing infrastructure. Additionally, EFS will also aim to build capacity of intermediaries to meet demand requirements.

Speaking at the ceremony, Khawaja Adeel Aslam, CEO – EFS, shared the vision of the organization, “Our dream is that every child in Pakistan has access to good quality, cost effective education”. He emphasized the importance of this programme, “this partnership between EFS and BRAC Pakistan holds great promise as a model for addressing the education crisis in Pakistan. EFS is committed to provide as much support as possible to the programme to increase the number of children who get free school education under this program in the coming years”.

“On a global level, BRAC specializes in providing education to the under-privileged children in the most stricken regions. Together we can significantly improve the education scope in Pakistan by making sure that every child attends school from an early age. At EFS, providing quality education to out of school children is our primary goal. Every child deserves education and a better future; we hope that our support will help children to fulfill their dreams”. He further added, “We at EFS are grateful to DFID which not only is our primary funding partner, but also played a key role in facilitating this partnership between EFS and BRAC Pakistan”.

Speaking at the occasion Mr. Muzaffar Ud Din – CEO / Country Representative BRAC Pakistan said, “Firstly, I must congratulate both the parties on this significant alliance for the overall betterment of Pakistan and the education sector in particular. There is a lot of work to be done both in terms of reach and quality of education in Pakistan, our initial project aims to provide free education to 21,000 children of which majority will be females. The idea behind ensuring children attend school is not just to educate, but also to develop communities that are healthy, crime-free and self-subsistent on a long term basis”.

According to UNICEF and UNESCO Institute for Statistics approx. 6.5 million children in Pakistan are out of school indicating that a large number of children of primary school going age are not enrolled in schools as they can’t afford it. In this “state of emergency”, the alliance between EFS and BRAC Pakistan is certainly a leap towards development and a beacon of light for the future generation of Pakistan.


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