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Health & Fitness

The dream of a local family to educate Pakistani girls is still alive

Local family keeps dream alive to provide educational opportunities for poor Pakistani girls.

 

 

 

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BY ED COLLINS

 

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A young 18 year-old Pakistani-American girl from Deerfield named Sonia Shah had a dream.

 

After visiting her grandparents in 2010 in the ancestral village of Kangra in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghanistan border, she was appalled at the educational discrimination she observed between males and females in the two rural public schools in the community.

 

Society placed educational emphasis on the males to receive career preparatory education to prepare them for their life’s work, while females only received minimal public education through grade five before embarking on a life of labor, marriage and homemaking.

 

Sonia, dismayed at the lack of opportunity, decided to help the young women of the village improve their lives by building a private two-room school for the girls in the village.

 

For a young girl of 16, born and raised in the United States and Europe, and now temporarily living amongst the poor of rural Pakistan it had to be a major culture shock. However with grit and determination Sonia set about forming a non-profit foundation named after her grandmother Kulsoom hoping to raise $6,000 from back home to purchase property and construct a small school building.

 

Meanwhile she organized periodic classes outdoors on language, reading and other subjects for the young ladies of the village who persevered in stifling summer heat, and watched as construction began on the school.        

 

However, Sonia never lived to fulfill completion of her dream. She died from an auto accident in 2012 back home in the US at age 18 just as she was preparing to leave for her freshman year at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

 

Iram told the Rotarians her daughter was strongly motivated by her Pakistani grandmother, who married at age 13 and despite the lack of formal education insisted that all six of her children receive the best education available. At one point, Iram was the only female in a class of 80 at a Pakistani business school. She later in life became a vice president for British Petroleum in the United Kingdom.

 

The goal of the grandmother became the goal of her daughter Iram, and then her granddaughter Sonia.  They all strongly believed in the value of a good education and the equality of opportunity for all women throughout the world.

 

In a war-torn country such as Pakistan, 64 percent of the population lives in rural areas and 24 percent live below the poverty level. The nation’s literacy rate is about 50 percent, but female literacy is at 35 percent. More than 15 percent of the Pakistani budget is currently spent on defense while only three percent is spent on public education.

 

Today Sonia’s dream continues through the efforts of her Mom and Dad Iram and Mahmood Shah, of Deerfield, and the generosity of friends and supporters.

 

Iram told Sonia’s story at last Thursday’s weekly luncheon of the Deerfield Rotary Club. The Shah family vows to carry on their late daughter’s wishes.

 

“Sonia’s academic achievements as an honor student who spoke five languages were remarkable. However, her most admirable traits were her love of humanity, her desire to make a positive contribution in life, without any need for reward or recognition,” her mother said.

 

You can help fulfill Sonia’s dream by making a donation to the Kulsoom Foundation, 74 South Waukegan Road, Deerfield, IL 60015. Mrs. Iram Shah’s phone is: 312-479-2458.  The foundation is also listed on Facebook.

 

 

 

 

 

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