Pakistan
Over the past three years, through our Monitoring and Evaluation Program, our team has noticed that while enrollment in school is high in the five mountain villages that we work with, regular attendance rates are often lower in most villages. One likely reason for this is that many of these semi-nomadic families move to the high pastures in the summer to shepherd their flocks. It seems that increasingly women and children travel with the men, more so than they had been in the past. Our team has been working with village elders and teachers to learn more about this change and to think creatively about solutions.
One such solution involved piloting two mobile tent schools to travel into the high pastures with two villages this summer. Two village teachers and five young emerging local leaders in our partner organization travelled into the high pastures carrying tents and school supplies on donkeys. They lived among these families in the high pastures for two months and provided daily classes and tutoring for 70 students in ‘tent schools’. The young leaders focused on continuing to build relationships and trust among the nearly 400 community members.
Our team and village leaders evaluated the project and the response was very positive. Our team is planning to offer mobile tent schools for additional remote villages in 2025.
Mobile Tent Schools
In remote, seminomadic communities in Pakistan, the school year used to come to a halt during the seasonal migrations. Children missed out on up to seven months of education,
Opportunities For Women
“I never have missed a single day and I have my best time here in this center.”
A Tent School That Travels with the Shephard People
Over the past three years, through our Monitoring and Evaluation Program, our team has noticed that while enrollment in school is high in the five mountain villages that we work with,
Building Bridges through Education
Sher Azam is a community leader who supports public projects among the shepherd people in remote villages in northern Pakistan, including making improvements to education in village schools.
Helping Me Accomplish My Dreams
“Recently I completed my master’s degree in mathematics. I give all the credit to the Scholarship Program that has always stood behind me from kindergarten to university education.
I am already making a difference in my community
Now I am trained enough to do different types of stitching and I have already started earning.
There Is Hope!
On registration day, over 80 women filled the small yard around the building where training would happen!
How Flood Relief Paved the Way for Education
In the fall of 2022, catastrophic flooding swept across Pakistan. In the chaos, a landslide tore through the remote mountain village of Kunis taking homes and cropland with it.
Everyone Deserves Access to Education
We are seeing a breakthrough in understanding that all deserve to have an opportunity to access education.
Partnerships Transform Families
Sharif* grew up in a very conservative village. He was bullied at school by students and teachers. His family had heard of our partner’s Scholarship Program and their partnership with the local center to provide housing and support for students just like him.
Professional Excellence
Operation Mercy’s partner organisation has worked to develop a monitoring and evaluation program to ensure its programmes are pursuing professional excellence
Everyone Deserves Access to Education
Nahida likes to study but she never had a chance to go to a school because her parents always moved from one place to another. “I always had a desire to go to a school but I come from a shepherd family and in the summer we move up to high pastures with our livestock and we are not allowed to live in the village,” explains Nahida.