Educating kiln workers — a story of commitment

LAHORE

Instead of waiting for outside help, criticising the government or being selfish, we should perform our duty as a Pakistani. Pakistani youth have tremendous potential to make their dreams come true and change the lives of other people if they are encouraged, assisted and appreciated. 

This is the belief of Eama and Sheroz John, brother and sister, who have set up many open schools and vocational schools for thousands of families. 

Eama and Sheroz John, founders and creators of ‘Bricks Foundation for the Nation’, have enlightening thousands of illiterate and deprived boys, girls, kids, women and men in villages since 2015 without any help or financial assistance from private or public sector. 

Eama John, 25, a chartered accountant and chairperson of the foundation and her brother Sheroz want to do something for the depressed, hardworking yet underpaid and marginalised communities living in less-developed urban and rural areas of the City. Since her childhood, Eama had a dream of helping the poor and the oppressed. She would see all around on roads, streets and even in her neighbourhood to help the poor. Belonging to a respected and educated family, Eama went abroad for higher education after graduating from her hometown. Even during her stay abroad, Eama never forgot the poor of her country.

After completing education, Eama gave up the idea of doing a job or minting money through her highly paying profession but decided to utilise her education and skills to educate and train poor workers, men, women and kids in kilns on the outskirts of Lahore. 

She took along her 18-year-old brother and both founded the organisation from their own pocket. Talking to The News, Eama John said: “My brother Sheroz and I would start our journey early in morning on a bike to look for a much required point to start our work. It was a tedious, scary and highly difficult task which we had started. In most places in the poor localities, people would shy away from the idea of sending their kids to school or their women to learn mainly because of economic considerations”. Eama said the poor thought that their kids and women were a vital source of earning and would not like to spare them for education. 

"However, in Hulloki, a village off Main Ferozpur Road, we received a very positive response from kiln workers and their owners, who gave us a place there to teach Muslim and Christian workers’ families," Eama said. “There is a huge difference between reality and dream that we came to know through a hard experience of travelling to Hulloki every day to teach them, facing freezing cold, fog, rain and scorching heat," Sheroz John said. 

“Our main objective was to facilitate these people by giving them education and vocational training on their doorsteps," they said. 

The second project of the volunteers is at Ahloo Village, near Kahna. They believe that it is not the responsibility of the government only to provide people with facilities, but it is also the duty of every educated Pakistani to help the government in providing assistance to the poor and the marginalised.