Hareem, Ahsan join TCF as goodwill ambassadors

TV actors Hareem Farooq and Ahsan Khan visited The Citizen Foundation’s (TCF) Qayyumabad campus and signed an agreement to become goodwill ambassadors.

Both the celebrities showed their commitment towards the TCF’s mission to provide quality education for the less privileged. They will support the ongoing efforts of the TCF by creating awareness about the need to create education opportunities for all the children of Pakistan regardless of their caste, creed, religion or ethnicity.

On behalf of the TCF, Isfandyar Inayat, GM Outreach, signed the agreement and welcomed Hareem and Ahsan on board for joining the TCF’s education movement. Expressing his thoughts, Inayat said, “We need to highlight the emergency for the need to educate all children because it is their basic right. I am so grateful to Ahsan and Hareem for becoming a part of the big TCF family and for graciously agreeing to help us in talking about this very important issue. I have no doubt that these efforts will help us in reaching out to many more out of school children.”

Education remains one of the biggest socio-economic issues being faced by Pakistan. Currently, there are more than 22.6 million out of school children. This makes Pakistan the country with second highest number of out of school children in Pakistan. That’s why we are facing an education emergency and all hands need to be on the deck to create the capacity for providing education for these out of school children. Statistics reveal that 1/3rd of out-of-school children do not attend because education is too expensive or the school is too far. The TCF school model was built to solve for these issues.

“Education is the best gift that we can give to any child. I visited a TCF school earlier this week and it was one of the most incredible days of my life. After winding through a couple of narrow lanes of Machar Colony, we reached the purpose-built TCF school in the heart of the community. I have joined hands with TCF to support their mission to provide quality education for the less privileged,” said Ahsan after signing the agreement.

“Education makes a child’s universe limitless -- so just imagine where Pakistan can be if all our children are able to get this basic civil right and shine bright?” said Hareem while sharing her thoughts.

The Economist has called The Citizens Foundation (TCF) “perhaps the largest network of independently run schools in the world”. The TCF has nearly 1,500 school units in 700 sites across Pakistan where children were previously out-of-school. The TCF has built schools in the heart of rural communities and urban slums so schools are a walking distance away from the children. The foundation is the largest private employer of women in Pakistan with an all-female faculty of 12,000 teachers and principals, encouraging parents to send their girls to school. The TCF has 220,000 students this year. Nearly half (48 per cent) of TCF students are girls. Eighty-eight per cent of TCF alumni have gone to college and 71 per cent are employed.