Updated 14 September 2011
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Avalkonda is a village in Andhra Pradesh, 600km south of the state capital Hyderabad. Currently Andhra Pradesh has a literacy rate of 67.7%, this means over 27 million people livingin the state are illiterate.
On a visit to the village Mulla Asghar saw families rolling cigarettes (bidis) to pay back debt they had taken years go at a very unreasonable interest rate. Children were being born into years of servitude to creditors and families had no way to break free from the extortion.
Mulla Asghar arranged for the entire village debt to be paid off, and in 1994 built a school costing £20,000 in the area to provide the children with an education. He also bought the land surrounding the village and arranged for the families to be relocated to houses provided by The World Federation.
Today the school is very good achieving results, and children are being allowed to follow their dreams into higher education without being forced into child labour. The Zainabiya Child sponsorship scheme currently sponsors 318 children in Avalkonda and a further 594 children in Andhra Pradesh.
On return from a visit to the village Sajjad Tejani the then Chairman of ZCSS said, “It was amazing to see the children wanting to become doctors, businessmen, teachers, and follow their dreams into higher education. However none of this would have been possible without the work of Mulla Asghar and support of our donors.”
He added, “However we have to do more for Andhra Pradesh because of mass poverty, there are thousands of children wanting an education but can’t afford on
e.”
Students at Mulla Asghar Memorial School have access to a library, a computer lab, a fully equipped science lab, and a gymnasium. The dedicated teachers ensure the students get all the necessary resources to enable them to achieve the best results possible so that they can carry on into further education.
The head teacher at the Mulla Ashgar Memorial School said, “Education has become the right weapon to flush out illiteracy in Avalkonda.”
The World Federation’s objective is to enable communities to become self-sufficient through the provision of education.
The Vision of ZCSS at its launch in 1981 to sponsor the poor to educate themselves out of dependence continues to bear fruit and improve the livelihoods’ of many.
To sponsor a child through the Zainabiya Child sponsorship scheme please email zcss@world-federation.org or donate online.