Schools
The Abaseen Foundation has built, and continues to run, 3 schools.
The catchment area for the schools is from the outskirts of Peshawar and the ‘settled areas’ of FATA where populations are static and have abandoned a nomadic lifestyle.
There are almost 1,500 students attending the schools. Despite being of marriageable age a significant number of girls remain in MGM school, representing a shift in cultural attitudes to female education. Literacy rates for girls in this area are less than 3%.
Abaseen Foundation believes that ‘If we educate a girl, we educate a mother and a whole family’.
24 girls have recently qualified at A level to a standard to enable them to attend University, Abaseen Foundation are sponsoring their places.
The schools’ objectives:
To provide quality education to the students from marginalised communities of FR Peshawar and adjacent settled areas.
To create an attitude in the area that values education as a way out of the poverty
To support families who cannot afford education for their children
To encourage families to send girl to school
To discourage drop-outs of children, especially in girls’ education
To encourage students, especially girls, to enrol in secondary school after primary education
The families pay a nominal community contribution for their child to attend our schools in order to create a sense of ‘ownership’ of the project. The poorest families receive 100% financial support.
The University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) in Preston has supported the work of the Abaseen Foundation for many years in various ways and in 2017 pledged to provide a free-of-charge degree place every year for a graduate from the Abaseen Foundation schools in Pakistan.
The children in our schools are highly motivated and they strive for something which would normally be beyond their wildest dreams.
Vocational training centre
AF PK has established a Vocational Center at Shamshatoo under its livelihood enhancement program for job creation for the poorest people including male and females of the area. The training trades include stitching and embroidery, tailoring, welding, mobile repair, electrician and computer training.
Abaseen Foundation Degree College (AFDC)
Abaseen Foundation Degree College (AFDC) was launched in October 2023, and represents a natural evolution of the Abaseen Foundation’s educational offering. It has been meticulously developed to meet the needs of the community, especially for the girls who possess the academic aptitude and a desire for higher education but face various challenges in leaving their homes.
This new degree college will allow students completing their A-levels at the Mian Gul Model School for Girls to continue their education locally — an opportunity that was previously non-existent. We have been registered by the Higher Education Regulatory Authority, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to offer a limited selection of degree courses initially. We have also partnered with the Women’s University in Peshawar as the academic awarding body for our first degree course on offer — Bachelor of Studies in English (BS English) — opening doors to higher education for countless young women.