We’ve built the ground floor, now we need to build the first floor of the Dream Model Street School in the Mawach Goth area of Karachi, Pakistan.

Why we care: In Mawach Goth, tribal culture and conservative ideologies have led to a general disregard for education and the pursuit of literacy, especially for girls; female literacy is often undervalued, as residents fear that their daughters and wives will gain a bad reputation if they are seen on the streets going to school.

How we’re solving this: Continuing construction on the Dream Model Street School, where 890 students from the neighborhood will be able to obtain a high-quality education.

In the event of this project reaching its funding goal, the Ray of Light Foundation will provide the remaining funds to completely construct, equip, and furnish the Dream Model Street School.

Since 2005, the Model Street School has educated 2,000 students in the Mawach Goth urban slum area of Karachi, Pakistan. Dream Foundation Trust has been operating the school out of rented rooms but now is constructing an 11-room school building, which is envisioned to ultimately provide a high-quality education to Mawach Goth children—boys and girls.

The Dream Model School provides education irrespective of gender, caste and religion. The school is situated in an area where education for girls is a taboo. In Mawach Goth, many community members hold tribal and traditional views regarding girls’ education. Parents believe outside exposure will make their daughters vulgar, sexually promiscuous, and morally corrupt and many believe that an education is useless for girls and women. As a result, the literacy rate among girls and women is 15 percent.

Dream Foundation has constructed the ground floor of the building, but needs to secure funds to build the first floor. This project seeks to raise funding to purchase the construction material needed to build the first floor. Materials include steel, cement, door and window frames, electrical wiring, and paint. When built, the school will offer primary and secondary classes simultaneously and evening literacy classes for female adults will be offered as well.

We want to provide the children with ample space and other facilities including a multimedia room, a computer room, library, student auditorium, and conference room, staff room, biology, and chemistry and physics lab.