Mega Project — Child Academic Support Project
There are about 14 million children in Pakistan, chained in child labor who do not have access to education due to lack of financial resources. Various NGOs try to tackle the problem through short-term solutions such as providing stationary, but in the long term, the impact is disappointing; the children do not show any substantial, tangible growth. Child Labor Eradication Program, currently functioning in Faisalabad, works to fill this gap i.e. tackling the problem of child labor by adopting a child and supporting him/her mentally and financially throughout the academic life. This dedication to a child’s life is much better than the temporary favors given. We found this idea incredibly reformative and constructive and got into touch with the organization’s administration team. We want to take on this idea for our Mega Project by simulating CLEP’s plan of action and apply it in Lahore. We plan to gather resources and volunteers who can support one child at a time, for the rest of his/her life.
CLEP works through a highly systemized and sustainable process through which children willing to study can change their lives forever. They have numerous success stories, and this inspired us to create the same impact in Lahore, a place where child labor is on the rise. On the bright side, we are optimistic that in this world, there exists more good than bad. It is very important that the problem of child labor is addressed in Lahore as well, one of the notorious metropolitans for forced labor.
Project Overview
Group 5 would be working not only on the fundraising techniques but would also be arranging lifetime donors through proper investigation and dedication. The plan is to adopt the fund collection policy of CLEP i.e. collecting funds as minimum as 5 Rs/day which would lead to a total of Rs.150 per month. A total of 48 life-long donors would be needed to ensure that two children preferably from Lahore are funded throughout their academic lives. Distribution of the responsibility of donor arrangement among the group members is mentioned below;
Amna Naeem 08
Hasnain Idrees 08
Kashif Ali 08
Noor Fatima 08
Hamid Jalal 08
Muhammad Shahbaz 08
Arrangements regarding donors are as follows:
· Identification of close friends and relatives as potential donors
· Awareness campaigns to attract other donors in our universities (strangers)
· Registration of each donor for recordkeeping
· Recording of the donor’s addresses and numbers to create a WhatsApp group for each group member who can give reminders every month (5 WhatsApp groups)
· Each member would report the donation collected at the end of the month in Mega Circle meeting
Fund collection arrangements are as follows:
· The funds would be collected on a monthly basis by sending out reminders in WhatsApp groups
· Joint accounts would be set up (Easypaisa, Jazzcash and bank accounts) to collect the funds
The universities are bound to open in September, which allows the members to have greater access to individuals who would be interested in the idea. Through seminars and socializing, we would try to grab the attention of 48 highly devoted and loyal donors who will not quit their donations at any time (unless exceptions in which case new donors will be allocated). At the end of the mega project, two children will be adopted from any part of Pakistan i.e. removed from their forced child labor duties and prepared for admission in the best school in their area. These children are those who have great fervor for acquiring education but are low on resources hence, they will be admitted in schools based on their caliber. The admission fees, tuition fees, uniform charges, stationary charges, transportation fees, healthcare and all such arrears will be taken care of by the team. In other words, we will give these two children the chance to pursue their dreams by leaving behind the dark life of labor.
At the end of three months, we will be able to:
· Register 48 loyal donors by careful research and gather the first funding i.e. Rs. 14,400 (2 months x 48 donors x Rs. 150)
· Adopt 2 children and begin the first stages of child educational emancipation (location and adopting through SOPs and proper criteria)
Inspired by CLEP’s work, we want to be able to provide victims of child labor an opportunity to take up initiative only by showing dedication to education. It is important to show children the light which is so often denied to them in this capitalistic world that runs on the sweat and blood of innocent lives. We plan to take up this project seriously that encourages individuals to support the less advantaged, could-be students. Using our university platforms, we will raise awareness in students to play their part in literal future building of Pakistan. All work in the mega project is based only on the idea of CLEP and responsibility of the practical application is totally on the shoulders of Group 5 members. The figures below give an overview of the project:
Monthly required fund for one child (150 x 24) Rs.3600
Yearly required fund for one child Rs.43,200
Project Sustainability
Working Flowchart
Recent Activities
The members of the group have been getting in touch with donors who would be willing to contribute every month. This is crucial as we must ensure their consensual and devoted contribution to the cause. Donors have a lot of queries that have to be answered in order to win their trust. We have been discussing various aspects of the project within the WhatsApp group and also over Zoom. We have also been in touch with CLEP in order to come up with better solutions offered in their working framework. Since each member has the responsibility of 8 members, hence the responsibility of the child’s education would fall on every member equally.
Each member will provide a list of 8 donors, including their credentials for record-keeping. Furthermore, we will begin proper profiling of the two children who have to be adopted and finish it in the next week. CLEP can help us considerably in this respect as they already have a tested system of adoption which we can adopt in order to identify the children we want to help.
One of our members Hamid Jalal met at least 4 potential donors in recent weeks and a lot of backlash was faced by him initially as people raised objections against the action model of the project. Most of them refused to donate as they assumed the idea is not well reflected as we’re not going deep in identifying the root causes of Child labor which was that the child has actually a family feed. It is understandable that all these statements are generic whilst CLEP is targeting only those particular affectees of child labor both of whom parents and child are willing to get education but they’re unable to meet the academic expenditures and CLEP aims to sponsor such group of people throughout their academic career. At present, the primary goal of CLEP is to offer sustainable lifetime academic only support to those kids who want to get rid of their labor and to get quality education for a better future.
This weekend, one of our Mega Circle members, Mr. Hasnain is traveling to Lahore as well as Jhang for the purpose of expansion of our social enterprise to touch the core educational institutions of Lahore. The following outcomes are expected off this visit:
- Children Identification & to decide and assign a caretaker in Lahore.
- Meet potential sustainable donors.
- To meet and brief our project to Mr. Rizwan Mustafa who is coordinator at KIPS Lahore with aim to include KIPS amongst our sustainable sponsors
- To visit CMH Lahore Medical College and engage with people out there encouraging them for a sustainable lifetime donation.
Our Mega Circle has managed to attract 32 donors by far with an aim to attract 48+ before the end of the fellowship.
