Although I’ve grown up and gone to school in Dubai, I spend every summer in my home country of Pakistan, connecting to my family’s roots. While exploring the city Karachi, I’ve witnessed the painfully stark contrast in terms of the opportunities I enjoy compared to the opportunities available to girls from marginalized communities. These girls have the same great hopes for their futures that I have, but without quality education, they don’t have the chance to realize them.

In Lyari — a town in Karachi — poor quality government schools stop girls from learning. The teachers are so underqualified there is barely any teaching occurring in classrooms. However, the greatest challenge is the attitudes of people towards educating girls. Almost all girls in the neighborhood do not have permission from their parents to go to school. As a result, girls become disengaged and uninterested in education. They were no way responsible; they are the product of traditional beliefs and practices that discriminate against girls’ education and limit girls to menial tasks. Sadly, these attitudes have prevented Lyari from progressing.

“We wanted to first help girls unlearn the gender norms they grew up hearing so they can start to understand their potential.”

— Balqees Baloch

When I saw the state of girls’ education in Lyari, I felt the burden of unfairness, which was replaced by the itch of wanting to do something. I reached out to my friend Asma Baloch, who shares my commitment to girls’ education, to find a way to work together to address these issues.

Together we decided to create a safe learning space for girls in Lyari to give them a platform to be heard. We wanted to first help girls unlearn the gender norms they grew up hearing so they can start to understand their potential. In a safe and trusted space, we hoped to equip them with the skills to help them to develop their self-worth.

There was a community center called Anjumans that had been vacant for a long time. We convinced the elders in the community to allow us to make use of it. They trusted us to make the best use of the place since we had a history of volunteering in the neighborhood. Then began the tedious work of cleaning, mopping, painting the walls bright colors and putting up posters to give the place a more fun and welcoming feel. We chose posters of female leaders like Benazir Bhutto, the first and only female prime minister of our country and Malala Yousafzai. These posters would perfectly complement our vision for the place.

Once we got the physical space ready, we designed a program that assisted in improving girls’ verbal skills, physical ability, scientific knowledge and basic mathematics. Our focus was to teach girls to rediscover themselves and prepare for the world that was awaiting their contributions. We were able to get 30 girls to attend our learning center. By reading aloud books like “Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory,” we introduced them to international children’s classics, a measure to let them connect to a bright colorful fictional world, whilst also improving their language skills. We taught girls the alphabets and how to write. As a reward to learners, we’d take them to fields to play games. It was especially delightful to see girls choosing to play football in the streets where previously we would only see boys.

Through our learning center, I saw the transformation in girls. They were becoming confident and expressive. More profoundly, we saw these girls wanting to teach their younger siblings and others in their households. A sort of a domino effect was taking place and to realize that we were the force behind it was really empowering. After studying in our learning center, girls showed more enthusiasm to learn and started achieving higher scores in their school assessments. I’m planning to recruit other young women to continue the learning center during the semester when I am at university.

I believe that the issues we face as a society can be battled with an educated population. No matter what the problem, education is always the answer. In fact, studies show that girls’ education is an important tool to boost global economic growth, improve public health, advance environmental sustainability and reduce conflict. I am the first lucky child in my family to pursue higher education. My heart is overwhelmed with gratitude towards my father who helped me access the gift of education. Working on the learning center allowed me to help other girls access the same gift. I feel grateful to have had the blessings to give a part of me to these young girls. And I strive each day to make my dream that every child has access to education, a reality for all.

Balqees Baloch

is a 17-year-old student from Pakistan who aspires to major in economics. She hopes to work in public policy to find ways to make better education more accessible to girls.