The Walkway School is on a mission to get underprivileged children in Hyderabad off the streets and into school so that they can achieve their potential.
There are more young people in Pakistan today than at any other point in history. More than 1.5 million of these young people live on the streets where they are often exploited by their ’employers,’ forced to beg, collect rubbish, prostitute themselves, sell drugs and steal in order to survive. It is easy to become desensitized to this particular issue in Pakistan and with no proper social security system in place, the fate of street children is often either forgotten about or glazed over.
The Walkway School in Hyderabad aims to ‘close the gap’ for children subjected to street life and those from underprivileged communities by providing Early Childhood Education and Social & Ethical assistance. The school was founded upon the belief that every child deserves the best education regardless of their background and that all children have the ability to achieve their potential in the classroom.
Founder of the school, Moazzam Shah Bukhari, has a history of giving back to his community.
At the age of 18, he established the Hyderabad Youth Network which engaged 10,000 young people in various workshops, conferences, and seminars providing practical career counseling. His social impact work continued informally too, through providing rations, creating job opportunities for needy families across the region and Iftar drives during Ramazan which have served almost 20,000 people in the last three years.
After seeing a child begging in a café, Moazzam decided to take his philanthropic efforts further by creating something more sustainable which could help the youth on a larger scale. He and his team created a space to provide a basic human right of any child; an education.
The team now consists of 20 plus volunteers working at the school and 19-20 honorary members who assist in spreading the word about the school and raising funds for them. More recently, an honorary Pakistani photographer based in Qatar sold his photographs and donated 100% of the profits to the school’s development – a huge achievement for the school and its community.
Having recently celebrated its two-year anniversary, The Walkway School has established fantastic relationships with their neighboring communities and built a level of trust from parents that is admirable. The team at The Walkway School regularly carry out outreach visits to not only encourage parents to send their children to the school, but actively change the mindsets of parents to see the value of education.
The focus of these community visits has also been to convince parents of daughters, in particular, to be allowed to study.
In 2017, Pakistan was ranked “the second-worst country in the world in regards to gender equality.” Although girls are legally allowed to receive an education, there are many obstacles standing in their way which has led to 56% of the female youth population in Pakistan out of school. The Walkway School firmly believes in the idea that “if you educate a woman, you educate a generation.” As an organization, they are passionate about ending the deep-rooted patriarchy that exists in Pakistan and strive to chip away at the dominant ideology that educating girls is of no value.
Students at The Walkway School are divided into two groups: basic and progressive. The basic group begins with learning Mathematics, English, Urdu, and Sindhi whilst also acquiring basic hygiene and social etiquette skills. Students in progressive groups are taught the importance of hard work and resilience and are introduced to more advanced reading and writing concepts including sentence structures, grammar, and word meanings.
The Walkway School has so far facilitated 240 students at their institution. 45 of these children are now successfully enrolled in private schools across the country under fully-funded scholarships, whilst 12 are attending government schools.
Their work within education has also been publicly recognized within the social startup sphere in Pakistan. Having recently achieved two awards at National Level Competitions as a Social Enterprise at IBA, Karachi last year, and Karachi Live Deen’s Competition two months ago, The Walkway School has firmly established itself as one of the leading youth-based non-profit social enterprises in Hyderabad.
Such milestones across the two years that The Walkway School has been up and running show what the team can achieve as they move forward with their mission.
As they grow their network, The Walkway School is working on strengthening and communicating with the most vulnerable families in their communities by equipping them with the educational resources that they have long been deprived of.
Their mission to pave the way for underprivileged children in Hyderabad who, in 10 years’ time will be 22 million adults and thus will be mobilized to fuel Pakistan’s economy and modernization, is commendable.
The Walkway School is more than a school to the children who walk through its doors. It has become a home, a safe space, and a place to learn from trusted and experienced adults who have their best interests at heart. Like many social startups, The Walkway School needs the support and generosity of individuals who have the capacity to donate funds so that they can continue to expand and serve more children in their communities.
You can donate here through The Walkway School’s official gofundme page or via bank transfer (details below).
You can also keep up to date with The Walkway School’s updates via their Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook pages. Please do show your support in the comments below.
Cover image via @thewalkwayschool/Instagram