Books, Not Bombs
Innovative educators are changing the way rural Pakistani children get to learn. The lovely, enchanting six-minute video by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is here. It'll make you smile.
The program he's reporting on, DIL, was founded in 1997 by Pakistani-Americans to address the educational deprivation of rural Pakistani children--particularly girls, who still suffer from the extreme sexism of provincial fundamentalism. Religion + patriarchy = full-time labor at the age of 8 to support their brothers' educations, or being traded as a child-bride at the age of 2 to an enemy clan to resolve a dispute. But that's changing. Watch the video and be charmed and heartened.
At DIL, the budget per child is $50 a year, but they manage to do so much with it. (A lesson for U.S. educators?)
The program he's reporting on, DIL, was founded in 1997 by Pakistani-Americans to address the educational deprivation of rural Pakistani children--particularly girls, who still suffer from the extreme sexism of provincial fundamentalism. Religion + patriarchy = full-time labor at the age of 8 to support their brothers' educations, or being traded as a child-bride at the age of 2 to an enemy clan to resolve a dispute. But that's changing. Watch the video and be charmed and heartened.
At DIL, the budget per child is $50 a year, but they manage to do so much with it. (A lesson for U.S. educators?)
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