TCF’s 19,100 alumni set to bring about positive social change

The Citizens Foundation (TCF) celebrated the positive and long-term impact of education at its recent event “Inspiring Hope through Education” held at the IBA, JS Auditorium. 

At the juncture of 22 years of its service in the education sector, the TCF highlighted the power of education through its alumni success stories in an awe-inspiring conversational discourse.

In these conversations, the real-life heroes themselves narrated their journey of overcoming all odds. A series of the three events, held in Dubai, Lahore and Karachi respectively, aimed to showcase the achievements of TCF alumni in all aspects of life.

“Today, TCF is inspiring positive change with its 1,441 school units across the country educating more than 200,000 boys and girls in urban slums and rural communities,” said a statement issued on Tuesday.

TCF Co-Founder and Chairman Ateed Riaz said that education was the silent revolution we need to turn around the future of our country. 

Education can make the difference between temporary alleviation and long-term solutions. In terms of priorities, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and healing the sick will always seem to take priority over teaching the basics of literacy. But illiteracy as a hindrance to development needs to be acknowledged if long-term economic and social changes are to be affected.

“The vision of TCF is to remove barriers of class and privilege and to make the citizens of Pakistan agents of positive change. We believe that access to basic education is the right of each individual and not a privilege. Apart from following the regular curriculum, we focus on the character building of students to equip them with high moral values and confidence.”

During the event, Riaz held an interactive discussion with three of the many TCF alumni -- Uzma Salim, assistant account general at AG Sindh, Mehreen Khan, student of Social Development at Habib University, and Asad Sajid, student of BBA at the IBA.

He mentioned that recognising the power of education to transform lives for the better and to serve as an antidote to most social ills plaguing the society, the TCF launched a quest to set up schools and provide quality education for the underserved segment in some of the most neglected rural areas and urban slums of the country.

“Just over two decades since it operationalised its first few schools in 1995, TCF has now produced alumni who are changing the course of life for themselves and their families and are acting as agents of positive change for their communities.”

He said that be it the pursuit of higher education, gainful employment in policymaking institutes or entrepreneurial ventures, TCF alumni were making their mark in their unique individual way.

Tauseef ul Islam, VP Operations, said that the TCF managed this massive operation seamlessly with its dedicated principals and area managers who had to face multiple challenges, which sometimes involved resistance from community leaders or reluctance of parents to send their children to school.

“Our principals rationalise the importance of education with these and other stakeholders to ensure that TCF schools continue to operate with a healthy number of students in every school.”

He mentioned that today, the TCF continued to educate and empower communities across Pakistan by providing quality education. An all-female faculty of 12,000 teachers leads and inspires these young minds to think, learn and question.

“This makes TCF one of the largest employers of females in the country. TCF encourages female enrolment and strives to maintain a 50 percent female ratio in most of its campuses. TCF seeks to educate and empower the youth and mould them into informed and responsible citizens capable of steering themselves and their society at large towards prosperity.  These are the young heroes of Pakistan who are choosing to transform not just their lives but of many others around them.”