CHIME FOR CHANGE and EDM music giant Amy Thomson have raised almost $62,000 to fund DIL’s Alamabad School project. Through concert fees and peer-to-peer fundraising, this contribution, along with a kick-off grant from DIL donors in Canada, helped to turn the $120,000 campus into a reality!
The DIL Alamabad School project was initiated to address the need for a custom-built campus to meet the growing need for quality education for students from grades K through 8 in that area. Alamabad Village is one of many remote areas where access to education has been lacking and girls are excluded from education. There are no public schools in the immediate area; however, DIL has been operating a private school there for some time. Due to resource constraints, the school was not large enough to accommodate all of the local children.
Construction kicked off in July 2014. By March 2015 the building was complete with nine classrooms, a library, an office, and four restrooms. The campus is now ready to open its doors to students and enrollment is expected to increase to 197 girls and boys, from the 132 existing students. Staffed at full capacity, the training team has delivered 60 hours of content knowledge and pedagogy skill training in the months leading up to the opening.
The Alamabad community has been deeply appreciative of DIL’s commitment and enthusiasm. Families from neighboring villages of Barikow, Khambo and Zarif Khan are also enrolling their girls in Alamabad’s middle grades, which is a new phenomenon in this community where female students typically drop out after completing primary school.
Underscoring the importance of this project, studies show that each additional year of schooling increases a girl’s income by 10%. Keeping girls in school also delays child marriages and reduces birth rates in the community.
We congratulate the Alamabad residents on their new school and wish our students the best of luck in making their career and life dreams come true! Help DIL provide quality education to the Alamabad School kids – along with thousands more. Donate now at www.dil.org.