Lyari is a fascinating place. There is no lack of passion and purpose. Number of people who participate in recreational and cultural activities dwarfs that in any other neighborhood in Karachi. Add activism to it which can be found in abundance in the streets of Lyari.
People in Shah Bag Lane of Lyari speak fondly about Ismail Shaheed Learning Center. Named after a kid who died in an unfortunate accident, it was originally setup in a street. There are still remnants of that setup in the street. There are blackboards on the walls and there is a heap of bricks on one side where Admin office of street setup existed. Sabeer Ahmed – a former student of the street school and founder of Dream of Youth – secured a small house in the same street with help of locals.
The tuition center is not very far from Aath Chowk, a famous intersection which connects eight streets and hence called ‘Aath’ Chowk. Currently the tuition center has 57 students some of which are not enrolled in any school. There is a nominal fees which is not enough to meet expenses which are limited to utility bills and teachers’ salary right now.There is no electricity when i reach there around 5 o clock which is often the case as Sabeer tells me. Therefore his team has setup one class upstairs permanently. Of course it does not require much of shifting as they don’t have enough chairs and children and teacher sit on floor mats.
Sabeer and his friends don’t fear to dream though. Sabeer is in the process to raise funds for his center and top of his agenda is to purchase UPS for electricity breakdowns and provide fan/water cooler for summer. You can follow Center’s activities here.
The Karachi Walla 
Leave a Reply