My Girl Goes to School

 Faraz (not real name) is a father of four young children, three boys and a girl - in the last few years each of his children have worked on the streets around the Rawalpindi bus station in an effort to get enough money to feed the family. They have each had their turn at collecting rags, plastics or other recyclables which they can sell for small money, collecting used oil that can be sold to mechanics or selling snacks from carts. As each of them have reached and passed school age they have stayed working because the family needs them to do so.

But then one day, through friends in the area he heard about the "Manzil School", a place where school aged children receive health care, life skills and an education that allows them entry to mainstream government schooling. It's a place where parents are taught about Child Rights and Parenting, and where mothers can receive vocational training in sewing, craft and income generation. (By equipping mums to make money the family can afford to send and keep their child/ren in school.)

Recently Faraz spoke of the difference this Drop-In Centre has made for him and his family: "My children are now all at school, even  the girl. They are happy. My wife is making some money from sewing for friends, enough to keep children in school. And I am no longer hitting my children - I have learnt how to punish them, I have learnt how better to manage them."

There are now two Manzil (First Steps) centres in Rawalpindi, with about about 160 children registered in their program. Today as I arrived about 30 young children were singing and acting together, laughing and smiling; while some of their mothers learned how to sew clothes, and the older girls learned how to design and sew designer collars onto their outfits.

Over the next three years Manzil Rawalpindi will seek to decrease the number of working children in the community by 3,500. The majority of these enrolled and attending school; the older girls and boys taught vocational skills to enable them to work and earn; the parents and community made aware of the rights of children and educated in good parenting skills.