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YES Community Learning Center: Basic Literacy to Vocational Skills

Taqdees Maria Pakistan Henna 500

By Maria Taqdees (YES 2004-2005, Pakistan, hosted by ASSE in Reno, NV)

In 2009, I started the Community Learning Center (CLC) to provide girls and women around me the education they were missing.  The Center started in the bedroom of my home in Baldia Town, an under-resourced area of Karachi. I have had the honor of sharing my story about girls education and the creation of the CLC, which I started several years after my year in the U.S. as YES student in 2005. When I returned to Pakistan, I did not get a chance to finish high school, but instead got married. All this turned out to be a blessing, and now I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to continue to build the Community Learning Center. Many YES alumni from the YES Alumni Karachi Chapter now volunteer to help teach the students and assist in other areas of the center and the CLC has become known as the YES Alumni Community Learning Center.

However, In the beginning, there was little help from inside or outside my community. I had to have the patience to build the trust of the community, as the families of the girls and even the local religious leaders first doubted my intentions. Yet, through perseverance and my conviction that the girls and women of my community deserve access to better education, over 200 students have graduated from the center.  At first, I saw the needs for the women of Baldia Town as training in basic communication skills, information communications technology (ICT) and English language for beginners. Those who graduated from the Center started contributing to their households significantly in terms of resource generation. Their training provided them better employment options. Most of these girls and women are from low income households where the primary bread earners earn less than a dollar per day. Yet these students have ambitions to pursue higher education and professions. They also yearned to utilize their potential to increase their families’ earnings and to build self-confidence, become independent, and yet respect the social norms of their conservative Pakistani society.

Taqdees Maria Pakistan Sewing Machines 500

Over time, I learned from my students that it was difficult for many of them to get that independence.  Many of them were not permitted to step outside their doorstep to seek employment opportunities outside of the home. Also, for many, the opportunity did not arise to enroll in institutions to pursue higher education. I started to realize that the women needed other skills to progress; vocational skills from which they could produce income from their homes.

In 2014, I applied for a grant from the YES Alumni Grants Program with a proposal to start offering vocational training at the Center. We received the funding we needed and started building the project, which has allowed many girls from Baldia Town to learn from talented and skilled female artisans. Under the supervision of the female professionals, including dress designers, jewelry designers, artificial flower craftswomen, foil work specialists and henna designing experts, the girls were quickly able to produce a collection of items including designer clothes, handmade decorative items, mirrors, glass paintings, crochet work, jewelry, handbags, hand fans and other creative products. The Center was so overcrowded with students and teachers at times that we realized we needed a bigger space.

I also realized that the Vocational Center also needed to help market these products for the women. The first exhibition of the YES Alumni Vocational Training Center was held at Marriot Hotel Karachi during an event organized by iEARN-Pakistan, the organization which runs the YES Program and supports YES alumni, to display and sell the work of the young ladies.

Taqdees Maria Pakistan Hotel Exhibition

Due to its success, I plan to expand the impact of the Center. Our next step is to organize larger exhibitions to display and sell the art products which are made by the women. With planning and marketing, we can create a brand name for the products. The fact that the women are also learning English and acquiring computer skills means that they may be able to take this project globally to a larger market by running online businesses from their homes.

I also have a much bigger vision, which involves expanding the YES Alumni Vocational Training and Community Center to other cities in Pakistan, beginning in Hyderabad, Sukkur and Jamshoro, and then leading to Gawadar and even Peshawar. In all of these places, there are women and girls in need of basic educational and vocational skills that will allow them to work towards achieving their dreams. My hope is to continue to be a part of that education process.

I am grateful to all those who have helped support the Center and have seen it grow. My thanks to the YES Program, to my mentors at iEARN Pakistan and my fellow YES alumni, my mentors at American Councils for International Education and my family for their support.


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