Dreamfly hopes to bridge this gap by connecting children in the schools and community centers it funds and operates in the region.

“Kids in these countries grow up hating people from other countries in the region”, said Umaimah Mendhro, a recent graduate of Harvard Business School and one of the co-founders of Dreamfly. Umaimah has roots in Akri – a small village in Sindh, Pakistan – where Dreamfly built its first school. “Kids of Akri can’t even spell Harvard”, continued Umaimah, “and I want to make sure that the opportunities that enabled me to pursue higher education in the US are available to these kids as well”. Mona Akmal, the other co-founder of Dreamfly, believes she enjoys the life she has because of the opportunities provided to her by the education she received. Referring to the opportunities available to her, she said: “If you level the playing field, amazing things can happen”.

Mona and Umaimah joined hands two years ago to start Dreamfly with the bold aim of providing first-class education to children, in areas such as Akri where there are either no schools or no substantial resources for schools that might exist. Dreamfly chooses the location of a school (or a community center), raises funds, and designs its program (curriculum, summer camp etc.), and partners with local organizations (such as The Citizens Foundation in Pakistan, and Rubia in Afghanistan) to run day to day operations.

Dreamfly aspires to create an environment where kids dare to dream. While educating children remains at the core of its ambitions, what’s really striking about Dreamfly’s approach is its aim to bridge the gap between countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and the US.

Here are some of the elements of Dreamfly’s projects.

Providing role models to the children. Dreamfly aims at building a strong bond between sponsors (most of whom are in the United States) and kids. The idea is to provide role models to students and to keep the community and sponsors involved in the growth of the children. For example, half way across the world in the United States, at events aptly called Dreamwall Pakistan and Dreamwall Afghanistan, attendees shared pictures of personal significance and wrote messages directly addressed to the children. In return, each student shared his or her name, age, and a dream. Students also shared their pictures taken using digital cameras provided to them by Dreamfly.

Connecting with sister schools. Dreamfly is working on establishing a sister relationship between its first school in Akri and a school in Seattle. Also, the curriculum in Dreamfly schools in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India is designed to keep students in touch with students in the neighboring countries. This, in the long term, will play a part in reducing tension between these countries – one school at a time.

Providing computers and technology. Most of the schools in rural Pakistan do not have any computers. But the school in Akri has a computer lab and is aimed at addressing three problems at once.

1. Computer programs and videos such as Sesame Street are used to educate children and help them learn things in a more intuitive and fun way.
2. Computers provide a means to help children learn about technology itself, by learning how to program or how to use Office software and other tools.
3. Computers serve a big part of Dreamfly’s mission: bridging the gap. Students learn how to use email to stay in touch with their peers and sponsors. Moreover, Mona and Umaimah are designing curriculum in a way such that students can use social networking tools (such as Facebook) to stay in touch. This is still work in progress, as they want to ensure that social networking tools are used in a way that does not hinder their education.

While kids pursue their dreams in Dreamfly schools, their sponsors will stay updated with the impact of their donations. Similarly, the children will get to know more about their peers and role models in the US and other countries. It’s hard not to see why this will help bring these kids together and pave the way for strong relationships between these, sometimes very alienated, countries.

Saad Fazil does freelance writing for VentureBeat, where he focuses on deep analysis of emerging trends in the industry. He is the founder of Whizner Consulting, a technology strategy consulting firm. Prior to consulting, he held business analyst, product management, and sales consultant positions at Kayak.com, Oracle, and Alcatel. He received his MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. He blogs at IT Valley and tweets at @sfrocks.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of STEP.

Her first stop was at a local public primary school for boys in Kot Nawaz, where grades 1 to 5 were being taught. Due to the lack of funding, the school did not have an actual building. Trees served as classrooms and rugs as chairs for approximately 60 boys enrolled in the school.

	An English class being held as the teacher manages multiple classes at the same time. The younger children assemble in their class with the usual chaos that accompanies 5 year old kids.
	The kids clamor to have their picture taken as class is dismissed.
	As the children leave their class the primitiveness of their classroom comes into stark focus.

Her next stop was the Government Girls’ Primary School, Jhugian Chur, where again classes 1 to 5 were being taught. This school did have a proper building, but it only had two rooms which were used to teach five different classes. At the time of visit, a joint Urdu class was being held for two different grades where the level of education was constrained by the level of younger students (from lower grades).

	Government Girls’ Primary School, Jhugian Chur.
	A class in session. The girls are trying to get through their lesson even though most of them are distracted by the visitors.
	A joint Urdu class being held for the different grades resulting in all the children being taught the same rudimentary level of language. The sole teacher does not live in Jhugian Chur herself and takes a half an hour rickshaw ride everyday to get to school.

While the pictures merely provide a window to what is common scenery in most of the rural and suburban areas in Pakistan, they also serve as a stark reminder to the ground realities of the educational system in the country and to how far we have yet to progress in this area. With an estimated population of 174 million, Pakistan is a country rich in labor force. However, it often falls victim to its populace looking up to the government and developed nations for the solutions to its problems, even for those where innovation or (in many cases) will and hard work alone can go a long way. This is especially true in the area of literacy and basic education. Make no mistake, government’s lack of funding and oversight is the root cause for the deteriorating infrastructure of the public education system. However, as members of the community, our ruing this fact alone and taking solace in placing the blame on the right entity is not going to help anyone. Where most, who witness similar scenes during their daily routines, blame the government and get on with their lives, there are others who have shown that individual efforts can make a huge difference in the education scene of Pakistan.

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greg Mortenson stumbled into the Pakistani village of Korphe in 1993 after a failed attempt to climb K2 where he witnessed poverty, lack of health care and education system and decided to do something about it. What followed was an amazing story of determination and sacrifice that has since resulted in about 80 schools in some of the most remote areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan providing education to over 24000 children (including about 14000 girls) who previously had little if any education opportunities. He is the director of the non-profit Central Asia Institute (CAI) and is also the founder of Pennies for Peace, an organization that educates American children about the world beyond their experience and shows that they can make a positive impact on a global scale, one penny at a time. His journey has been detailed in his best-selling book, “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time,” and is a must read for all those who want to make an impact in any public sector in Pakistan.

Mortenson’s success is not incidental. There are many other examples in our country where the vision of individuals and application made significant impact on the society. In 2000, a group of students from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI) noticed stark contrast between their educational facilities and those of the school-going children in Topi, and Project Topi was born. The project aims to create an environment for the children of Topi so that they are motivated enough to think that they can study and succeed. Students of GIKI take time out of their hectic schedule in order to teach local students and provide them with the motivation and aspiration they desperately need. The Citizens Foundation (TCF), a non-profit organization set up in 1995 by a group of citizens concerned with the dismal state of education in Pakistan, has established 600 purpose-built school units nationwide with an enrollment of 80,000 students. Developments in Literacy (DIL), another nonprofit by Pakistani-Americans, establishes, adopts and manages primary and secondary schools for underprivileged children in partnership with non-governmental organizations in all four provinces of Pakistan. DIL currently operates and manages 150 schools with an enrollment of nearly 15,000 students. READ Foundation, one of the largest educational NGOs of rural Pakistan, caters to around 60,000 students through 330 READ institutions, largely in the areas of Azad Kashmir and western NWFP.

Sana Fatima herself is a member of the projects team of LUMS Community Service (LCS). LCS is involved in coordinating and carrying out various charity campaigns and events. LCS website features this beautiful quote from Helen Keller that encapsulates the spirit of this article:

“I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do the something I can do.” – Helen Keller

Editor’s Note: STEP envisions playing an active role in bringing together different societies working to achieve a common goal, i.e., promoting science, technology and education in Pakistan. The website will provide a common platform to feature key projects in this area, developing relationships, and collaboration between these groups as well as individuals with a vision. If you know an individual or an organization that is doing good work in this area or if you have innovative ideas for improvement, we would love to hear from you.