Penplusapril302013

TUESDAY 30 APRIL 2013 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741 inside P | 12 MARKETPLACE • CGC Expands Nokia Lumia portfolio Google Glass could with two phones spur new tech wave P | 6 HEALTH • Tabata metes out fitness in short, repeated flashes P | 7 MOVIE • Iron Man 3 rules world, Pain & Gain takes US P | 8-9 RECIPE • Send in your best recipe and win a dinner voucher P | 10 FOOD • How to make Akhuwat-e-Awam, an the perfect Education City students-run Stir-Fried Tofu group, has successfully opened a volunteer-led P | 11 school for the education of poor children in Pakistan. Students LEARN ARABIC • Learn commonly used Arabic words and their meanings take charge P | 13 2 PLUS | TUESDAY 30 APRIL 2013 COVER STORY ‘Brotherhood of the People’ Pictures show children studying in the school started by Akhuwat-e-Awam, a group run by Education City students. local university student has finances to open a second school this received the Hamad bin summer. Khalifa University award “We are recognised by the govern- A for best service organisa- ment of Pakistan as an official education after creating a student-run tion institution,” added Yasin. “When group that has successfully overseen we think the model can be duplicated the education of underprivileged chil- easily, we will try to replicate at a dren in Pakistan through a wholly very quick pace, perhaps every four volunteer-led school. or five months. This is essentially Haroon Yasin is a freshman at the work and purpose of the club at Georgetown University and founded Georgetown,” he said. Akhuwat-e-Awam. The name in Persian During a successful pen pal cam- means ‘Brotherhood of the People.’ paign between the multinational club The founding members of members at Georgetown and students Akhuwat-e-Awam are students at at the Akhuwat-e-Awam school, his- the Georgetown and Carnegie-Mellon torical realities reared their heads campuses in Education City. It soon and a young student’s parents with- became clear to them that opening drew their child from the primary their own primary school in a com- school due to the nationality of the plex environment overseas required student’s pen pal. The Georgetown a committed and dedicated body to club put the pen pal programme on oversee administration, curriculum- hold to allow time to analyse the reali- related issues and any planning of ties on the ground and to assess the future projects. challenges the school faces. With the goal of meeting these “When the first school opened, I needs, Yasin and 19 other Georgetown “In Pakistan, in December 2011, we The school provides books, note- wasn’t in Qatar. I had just finished students started a campus service opened our first school,” said Yasin. books, pencils and food to all chil- my high school, and was on a gap year. organisation of the same name to “It is entirely student-led. So far we dren who enrol. The language of The idea had been discussed in my supervise Akhuwat-e-Awam’s ambi- have educated 70 children at the pri- instruction is English. Following close group of friends, but we had not tious plans to provide education cen- mary level for over a year. The club at the success of the first school, the had the entire plan mapped out since tres in Pakistani communities where Georgetown handles all the adminis- Georgetown club has found an it seemed like such a difficult initia- none previously existed. trative affairs of the school.” additional location and secured the tive to start and sustain,” said Yasin. PLUS | TUESDAY 30 APRIL 2013 3 The idea came from observing Bheka Sayeidan, a rundown slum community right next to the area where the student lived, in the capital of Pakistan. “This village sits in the middle of a posh locality in Islamabad, and yet has poverty that reaches astonishing levels,” said the student. Children in the area were badly affected by poverty. Seeing this, Yasin and his friends had always wanted to set up an institution that would not only provide them English-medium education, which was out of reach for them, but also offer them medical aid and food, given that many of the children were anaemic. The entrepreneurs got their most important breakthrough when they were able to raise QR780. The amount was imme- diately used to rent a building in the slum community, lay some carpets and put up blackboards in it, and buy some second-hand books for the children who were going to be enrolled. “As the donations started rolling in, we decided to open the doors of the building to the community. On the first day we expected a total of around 30 children. However, more than a 100 walked in, with their parents in tow,” recalled the student. As the school started getting media coverage, the volunteer team also increased in number. Students from universities and high schools joined, becoming makeshift teachers. At one time, the functional volunteer staff swelled to around 60 people. It is now more than one and a half years since the first school started. A heartening aspect of the effort is that pro- viding all these facilities to 70 children for a year cost only $2,800. In Doha, Yasin put together another group that manages the school’s administrative needs while the rest of the volunteers in Pakistan manage the school and assist the teachers. “It is certainly not easy keeping in constant touch with the There are people in collaborators in Pakistan. On many occasions, our responses this club who have have been delayed, or put into effect after a long period of time due to the slow nature of communication. This is what the ability to rapidly we’re looking to improve in the future,” admitted the student. Some of the volunteers from Georgetown are in Pakistan. replicate this model in At one point, 80 to 90 volunteers in all were involved with their hometowns and the project. The group’s current goal is to spread the word and attract more volunteers. Their Facebook page has helped communities. If we can with this. acquire and manage Following his experience so far, the award-winning student is willing to replicate the model elsewhere. The members the relevant resources, of the club at Georgetown study the model of the school in the initiative can spread weekly meetings with the goal of opening more such schools in other locations. A second school will open in Pakistan this even faster. We realised summer. very early that it wasn’t “There are people in this club who have the ability to rapidly replicate this model in their hometowns and communi- the money that would ties. If we can acquire and manage the relevant resources, keep us running in the initiative can spread even faster,” Yasin said. “We realised very early that it wasn’t the money that the long term, but the would keep us running in the long term, but the people,” he people. concluded. Haroon Yasin The Peninsula 4 PLUS | TUESDAY 30 APRIL 2013 CAMPUS MES School holds investiture ceremony MES Indian School held an investiture ceremony for student council officials for the academic year 2013-2014 at the KG Auditorium of the school recently. The inductees include school appointees and prefects, club secretaries, campus care force leaders, scouts and guides, cubs and bulbuls from all the sections of the school. The student officials include Suhail Subair, Senior Head Boy; Gollapudi Sai Spandana, Senior Head Girl; Gopalan Sunil, Junior Head Boy; and Harikriti Murali, Junior Head Girl. For the CBSE-i section, Adil Haris was inducted as the Head Boy while Fouziya Solanki was appointed Head Girl. Suhail Subair led the oath-taking, which reaffirmed the dedication and determina- tion of the new student officials. DPS-MIS band rocks at Toastmasters meet The annual Toastmasters conference was held in the DPS-MIS auditorium. The DPS middle school orchestra was invited to perform live in the morning segment of the event. Their enthralling performance was applauded by the audience. The band also played during Banner March. About 700 attendees, including dignitaries from different parts of the world and reputed Toastmasters from Qatar appreciated their talent and congratulated them on their performance. The school band consisted of Kaustab Bhattachary, Rishika Madineni, Rashi Chhajer, Aayush Rajput, Akshita Shankar, Divyam Sharma, Nachiket Sanjay, Sahil Kaul, Varghese George and Rohan Madineni. Social activist speaks at SIS Shantiniketan Indian School recently organised an interactive session for students with K Ajitha, a popular social activist who fought for women’s rights through her organisation Anweshi. She made the children, especially girls, aware of their rights and freedoms. She called for a world which handles the social issues of women sensibly and works for the uplift of people. She also brought to the attention of the audience other burning issues and social evils like dowry, women’s safety and dis- crimination against women. The principal-in-charge, Shihabudheen, presided over the function. COMMUNITY / MARKETPLACE PLUS | TUESDAY 30 APRIL 2013 5 ‘Passport to Passion’ challenge draws hundreds of youth undreds of young football enthusiasts took part in Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development’s first ‘Passport Hto Passion’ challenge at the Museum of Islamic Art Park last weekend, with the promise of several more events to look forward to in the weeks ahead. Youngsters between the ages of five and 15 years came out in full force as they attempted to complete a series of skills tests that were specifically designed to teach essential Bollywood teamwork and footballing skills, such as agility and goal- A young boy taking keeping strategies.

Load more