need for trauma sensitive schools in pakistan

VALUE THE CHILD

“I came to Lyari to change their lives, they in turn changed mine”- Sabina Khatri This research is based on Sabina Khatri and Kiran Foundation’s eight year experience in Lyari. Ignorant to the facts around the world, she

Identifying the Problem

A father smashes an 8 month baby girl against the wall resulting in a severely injured and traumatized child because he is angry at her mother ...

A mother burns her 2 year daughter with a heated hot spoon because shekeeps peeing in her pants...

A male teacher brings a telephone wire to school to slash the senior school boys if they do not pay attention in class...

A female teacher uses a stick wrapped in a red electric tape to whip the primary grade children if they talk in class...

Older boys in the street get together to harass a 5 year old boy with hearing impairment. They pull out the old fashioned cassette's tape and wrap it around him, stick twigs and sticks in his hair and makehim dance in the street...

Students of class seventh pull in a teacher who is recovering from brain tumor into their classroom, lock the classroom, tear his clothesand dance around him calling him names...

An uncle brings home cheap alcohol in a plastic bags and orders his 6year old nephew to serve him in a glass ......

A step father exposes his private parts to his 7 year old step daughter and on getting caught red handed by the mother of the little girl, instructs her to keep his 'pardah' as that's what a good Muslimwife should do....

A group of young boys aged 8-10 enjoy gathering around a street dog hitting him with stones until the dog bleeds ...

Research compiled by Kiran Foundation

WE CANNOT AFFORD TO LOOSE ANOTHER MIND TOVIOLENCE!

A grandfather lovingly teaches his little grandson aged 6 to hold a huge knife and cut the throat of a goat on Eid day and feel completelyhappy about it that it goes to Jannah....

An older brother teaches his younger brother to feed an animal of sacrifice, love it, play with it, get attached to it and then cut it as this is a great thing to do.....

A grandmother curses the mother of a little baby girl to have producedonly daughters and that she is a useless woman to her family. The daughters hear this every day only to be scarred for life.....

A fifteen year old gets manipulated into marrying a relative who takesher to his village to share her with his buddies....

A fourteen year old boy cuts himself with blades all over his forearm as he enjoys the pain . He was abandoned by both parents since he was 4 and kept moving homes from relatives to relatives....

A boy aged 9 has severe slashes on his back and hips with bruises on his face done by an Ustad in a Madarsa only to make the child believe that this is what is the right path to' Deen' is ....

A boy shoots another, both around 16 only because of an argument amongst friends. The boy loses his leg as it had to be amputated whilethe other boy masters the skill of violence....

A father brings home a new mother to his children, beating up the biological mother in front of them forcing her to accept this new family member .....

These are just a few cases of children I have been connected to in some way or the other, only in a small part of Lyari.

In my past 8 years of experience I have realized that 19 out of 20 children have suffered some kind of trauma and silent abuse from adults directly or indirectly resulting in further abusive or totally devastated children.


WHAT THE WORLD SAYS ABOUT VIOLENCE ..

The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal-development or deprivation is a definition of Violence. The global estimates of child homicide suggestthat infants and very young children, aged 0-4 year(s), are at the highest risk, while children in lower-income countries are at a higherrisk compared to those in high-income countries.

Child abuse and maltreatment constitutes all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment,psychological terror or commercial or other exploitation, resulting inactual or potential harm to the child's health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power. Violence against children occurs throughout the world, including South Asia, which has 23% of the world's population and is one of the world's poorest regions.

Pakistan is a developing country in South Asia with a population of 191.71 million and a per-capita gross national income of US$ 1513. Of the total population, more than half of the population is of children aged less than 18 years, and according to the World Bank, poverty remains a serious concern in Pakistan, with 40% of the population living under the poverty-line, with a literacy rate of 55% and one of the lowest in raking in the world . Pakistan ranks 146 on the Human Development Index. Pakistan is struggling to make its general and specific environment conducive for meaningful and sustainable advancement in terms of all aspects of human development. Importantly,Pakistan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990.

According to a study in Express Tribune, Pakistan is the fifth most violent nation in the world. Countries Prior to Pakistan include Iraq,Somalia, Afghanistan and Sudan. Research shows that the same countriesrate highest in child labor too. Domestic violence and child abuse is


a common problem in these countries. The same countries have an extremely poor primary education system. Big percentage of young children is not attending schools only to be left on streets or homes where they are neglected and abused. These children also witness domestic violence in homes. A culmination of all results in trauma, scarring the child for a lifetime.

In Pakistan a child from a marginalized family who attends state school, cheap private school or madrasa is equally abused as the childwho is out of school. The children from elite families (only 1.5 percent) enjoy schools which do not allow humiliation and corporal punishments. A huge distance is created between children of the same nation, elite being few and marginalized being more than 80%. This tooresults in trauma for the elite child, teaching the child neglect towards low income parts of the society. As a result, most of these children lack resilience, humility, empathy and grow up to contribute to an insensitive society meanwhile a generation of angry and frustrated marginalized youth grows with no respect for their policy makers and the rich of their country.

All schools, government or private, cheap or expensive deal with a groups of children with practically no or very little participation ofthe parent thus creating a huge gap of sharing knowledge and experiences between the parents and children. This is one of the fundamental reasons of increasing generation gap within developing counties such as Pakistan. This deprives a child of having a wise parent as a friend, resulting in little to no positive experience for the child. Due to this negligence, fear increases while moral decreases in children. This leaves the child to take decisions on his/her own, which only manage to increase hopelessness in these children. As a result these children are susceptible to negative influences further causing them to grow up as insecure adults. This heightened insecurity is also a form of trauma.

The subject of childhood trauma often measured as “Adverse Childhood Experiences” or “ACEs” and its connections to substance abuse, mental illness, aggressive behavior and crime has been getting a lot of attention in the professional criminal justice, mental health and


addictions literature over the past few years in all thoughtful societies.

Many children especially in marginalized communities have had traumatic and painful experiences due to poverty and being underserviced. Child abuse is common in frustrated and angry communities, through direct means or through direct exposure to domestic violence. As a result neglect has become a norm and is no more considered as an abuse.

What are “ACE’s”?

Adverse Childhood Experiences are when children experience emotional, physical or sexual abuse, emotional or physical neglect, loss of a parent due to separation, divorce, incarceration, abandonment or death; substance abuse and addiction within the family/household, family dysfunction; depression, mental illness or suicide within the family or household, incarceration of any family/household member, or witnessing violence against their mother, siblings or even animals.

Research over past 15 years has found very strong relationships between ACE’s and the following outcomes:

1. Early initiation of alcohol use.2. Addictive drinking behavior into adulthood.3. Prescription drug use.4. Lifetime illicit drug use, drug problems and self-reported

addiction.5. Increased risk of suicide attempts, for both men and women,

during both adolescence and adulthood.6. Lifetime depressive episodes.7. Sexual risk behaviors.8. Teen pregnancy.9. May cause lasting changes in the brain to promote aggressive

behavior in adulthood.

Some Australian statistics by Liz Mullinar( CEO of Heal For Life -Australia) compiled in 2005 state:


1. 69.9% of psychiatric in patients with serious psychological disorders suffered childhood trauma.

2. 82-86% of bipolar disorders had some link to childhood abuse and trauma.

3. 90% of border personality disorders have had connections with childhood pains.

4. 80% of depressive disorders have suffered childhood adversities.5. 98% of suicide attempts happen due to childhood neglect and hurt.

Considering the above to be statistics in first world country, wecan imagine what it must be in Pakistan.

Dr. Vincent J. Felitti released a ground breaking research report in 1998 on the devastating effects of adverse childhood experiences on a long term behavioral and physical health outcomes. Since then, in study after study, the pool evidence has become deep and compelling; early adversity impacts the development of the growing brain and thoseorganic changes lead to impaired cognitive social, emotional and behavioral functioning.

Without intervention by caring adults (parents, relatives and educators), these children are much more likely to struggle not just in school but throughout their adult life. These children grow up to give back whatever they were given as children; aggression, anger, humiliation, carelessness and cruelty. These lead to injustice, corruption, insensitivity and violence. These are also the major reasons for individuals not taking responsibility for improvement and the decrease in the quality of work force. Thus bringing Pakistan to the top five violent countries in the world!

The Solution

The problem will not subside by just creating opportunities for children to attend schools! It has become a high priority to make the schools and homes, safe and happy places. The report that identifies Pakistan as the fifth most violent country in the world, the same report also identifies New Zealand and Finland to be the beacons of


peace. Other nations in this index include Ice Land, Japan, Austria, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg and Sweden.

If the ratings are compared to the early childhood education system ofthe same countries, there is a surprising connection between the two. The Nordic countries top the ranking, with Finland having the world’s best preschool environment. Sweden and Norway follow the charts as second and third respectively. These countries perform relatively wellacross all four index categories, “Availability, Affordability and Quality” of their preschool environments. As well as the broad “socialcontext”, which examines how healthy and ready for school children are.

European countries offer the most affordable and high quality preschool programs in the world. While the region’s sovereign debt crisis has led to sharp cuts in social spending, recognition of early childhood education (ECE) is so strong that preschools are unlikely tobe uprooted.

The solution lies in developing state schools which offer something more than what private schools are offering. All preschool programs should be mother-child-teacher partnership programs where in the trauma sensitive and compassionate approach is applied at school leveland taught to parents to conduct at home. Compassionate and loving schools provide grounds for helping children feel safe and happy at school. Based on both research and experience we found that trauma sensitive school systems can educate and guide child-care providers; parents and educators, over their roles and responsibilities in prevention, identification assessment and treatment of child maltreatment.

UNESCO defines basic education as the range of educational activities,comprising formal, non-formal and informal public and private that aimto meet basic learning needs as outlined in the “World Declaration on Education for All.”

Statistics indicate that children whose mothers cannot read or write are 50% more likely to die before the age of five and twice as likely to suffer from malnutrition as a child whose mother completed primary


school. On the other hand educated mothers are 50% more likely to immunize their children. If these statistics are taken into account, 1.8 million children lives can be saved every year in only in the sub-Saharan Africa, by providing every mother with secondary education.

Statistics also indicate that a girl who receives an education is three times less likely to contract HIV/AIDS. If every girl and boy received a primary education, 7 million cases of HIV/AIDS could be prevented in a decade. Women with six or more years of education are more likely to seek prenatal care, assisted childbirth and postnatal care, reducing the risk on maternal and child morality and illness.

Educating mothers though mandatory weekly sessions to understand the effects of neglect and violence on a child’s learning so they may build a school conductive environment at home. This in turn will help traumatized children to learn, which should be a major focus of all educators, especially within the marginalized areas where children play the role of a punching bag for the stressed adults.

Pakistan spends 2.5% of the GDP on education. Unfortunately we have nospecific data on how much is spent on early childhood education. Whereas 3.2% of the GDP is spent on military! Although the percentage of GDP should go up to 10%, more important would be to train schools for compassionate and enjoyable ways of learning and introduce the alternate intervention of Trauma Sensitive School System. State schools should not just be a happy place for the child, but also for the mother.

The Kiran School System

Developing compassionate leaders since 2006, The Kiran School System is a trauma-sensitive mother-child compassionate pre-school as well asan alternate intervention for primary and secondary schools. Kiran School first opened its doors in the underserved violent and volatile neighborhood of Lyari Karachi. The school system started off as a preschool program on the belief that leadership values are instilled at an early age and require the support of a child’s guardians. The aims are to educate a child to compete in mainstream schools instead of remaining marginalized. To ensure the program’s success, the school


brings entire families into its tutelage, mandatorily involving the mother and henceforth all relevant members in the child’s life. This ensures that a child does not receive mixed messages of education and grooming and that the community as a whole can receive help and counsel to uplift themselves from their current circumstances. A testament to the success of this program can be seen in the capacity of Kiran Students.

While we have been aspired to replicate the system in different regions, we were unable to scale it up to state level without an experienced team to help galvanize things. We found this team in Akhuwat Foundation’s lead representative in Sindh, Nazir Tunio, who brings the enthusiasm and management experience needed to tip the scale forward.

Objectives

- To train schools for the trauma-sensitive intervention through introducing the mother-child-teacher partnership program.

- To set up small Kiran pre-school labs in underserved areas which role models the above and serves as training grounds for educators.

- To offer a research and fun based phenomenon teaching methods to schools all around Pakistan.

- To shake hands with policy makers to bring a change in the approach of teaching at a state level.

- To help a child and the mother to reach academic, emotional and social success by using our CORE values in classroom teaching.

- To create opportunities for quality education for children in marginalized communities through scholarships in main stream schools.

- To change mindsets through our little ambassadors of love.

How Do We Do This

Kiran foundation is committed to empowering communities through academic excellence and shared values.


We aim to achieve academic excellence by:

- Fuelling intellectual curiosity and creativity- Providing children from disadvantaged backgrounds with high level

teaching and support.- Giving children the opportunity of gaining admissions, on merit,

at well-reputed schools.- Assisting children in obtaining scholarships to achieve their

academic dreams.- Facilitating valuable extra-curricular activities to build

confidence, interests and skills.- Providing a loving and compassionate environment where children

are given the support to grow, personally and intellectually.

Our Holistic Learning Approach is based on:

- Grooming parents, and assisting their personal and professional development.

- Providing mother with classes to suit their needs.- Enabling mothers to achieve their dreams through personal and

financial support.- Empowering artisans through ‘Integrated People’, a sustainable

business selling handicrafts.- Uplifting entire families and communities by empowering youth and

women.- Supporting Kiran faculty in further education.

We Aim to Inculcate Shared Values By:

- Building respect for parents, family and larger community.- Cultivating social cohesion and mutual trust.- Developing the values of courtesy, honesty, responsibility and

forgiveness.- Inculcating a community ethos based on respect and love.

Our Goal of Societal Change is based on:

- Giving belief to children that they can achieve their goals. - Helping children to achieve their dreams.


- Encouraging children to use their skills and education for the betterment of society.

- Investing shared values in their future work.- Inspiring young people to using their abilities to achieve

positive change in society.

Success Stories

Success story 1Posted on MAY 2, 2015 Hamza Age: 10Class: 6

Hamza is the eldest among his four siblings. His mother was only 15 at the time of his birth. His father was a labor in fishing industry and could hardly earn enough to meet their needs.In 2007, Hamza’s mother approached KIRAN Pre-School with a dream to provide him with quality education. The four year old boy was quiet and timid. He avoided hugging and shaking hands with teachers. KIRAN’s strategy to train mothers to be compassionate worked out. It took almost one year for Hamza to become moderate and be delighted with singing and dancing. Eventually, he became generous at giving hugs and kisses to his mom and teachers.After spending one year at KIRAN Pre-School, he gave admission test in several reputable schools, including Habib Public, Agha Khan, Nasra and St. Michaels. As he cleared all tests, the choice was now parents’. We mutually decided to place him in St. Michael School. Hamza’s admission in St. Michael was a great success for his parents for which they were highly grateful to KIRAN’s team. He, then joined KIRAN’s after-school program for improving grades and grooming personality.In the first year, he graduated the Kindergarten with honor roll and has been awarded with this certificate till now. Hamza’s success can be measured with the collection of awards he has received so far. He has got awards in handwriting, poetry recitation, reading program at ‘literary junction’ and leading speech


competitions at different forums. He also received numerous certificates from weekend Islamic school.Today, he is in 6th Grade. He stands out among his peers. From a meek child to aconfident, straightforward and thoughtful personality, his intellectual, emotionaland social development is a remarkable progress. He has developed extreme tenderness for his younger brother who is hearing impaired. Having a desire to become a philosopher and a scientist, Hamza has revealed himself as a passionate reader, critical thinker, fervent animal-lover, a compassionate community helper. His father considers him as a trustworthy person with whom he can share everything. Being the member of the ‘KIRAN’s Green Society’, Hamza has contributed in planting trees and cleaning the neighborhood.Recently, in this summer, he has also marked an achievement as a teacher. He selected a 3-year old child for helping academically.Hamza’s parents appreciate KIRAN’s financial support for Hamza’s quality education, for providing him and the mother with compassionate environment.

Success story 2Hammad Age: 10+Class: 5

Hammad is the third child in this family. His father was a shopkeeper and was unable to sustain the provisions for his family. Hammad’s elder brothers were puton work at early age in order to seek an additional monetary support for the family. His father’s second marriage in 2000 caused a trauma to this family. Hammad let out his frustration through anger and aggression. His mother has broken down and had lost control over her emotions.

In 2007, Hammad’s mother approached the KIRAN School System with a hope to find


some help regarding her child’s education and grooming. He got admission in KIRANPre-school. KIRAN’s team came to know about their sufferings and played a positive role in counseling the mother and stabilizing the family through emotional and financial support.

Hammad appeared to be an energetic child and an ardent learner. The compassionateenvironment at KIRAN aided him to become expressive in a right manner. He was sensitive and demanded respect which was duly delivered to him at KIRAN. His rebellion was transformed into tenacity.

In 2009, he got admission in Happy Home School on merit. His journey of success began with excellence in academic, sports and other competitions. He attended theKIRAN’s after-school program for motivation and extra-curricular activities. He’sgot a creative mind as he loves to sketch out figure in his leisure time and took part in art contests. He loves to dance and is interested in learning the guitar. His leadership qualities can be identified by his bold and confident communication with his elders and cordial relation with his peers. Hammad is a visionary as he dreams of turning Lyari into a ‘Robotic Town’ where robots are used to control the security and cannot be killed in retaliation. This also showshis empathy towards saving the human resource.

As the member of ‘KIRAN Green Society’, Hammad has been serving the community withstreet plantation, art therapy at cancer hospital and by teaching a toddler in Lyari during summer.

Recently, he has cleared the admission test for Habib Public School and will attend the school from August.

In the words of his mother, “had he not been enrolled in KIRAN, he would have would have become spoiled by absorbing the negativity from the environment.”


Success Story 3MuntahaAge: 10Class: 5

Muntaha is another precious ambassador of KIRAN School System. Wearing a beautiful smile, she seems embracing everyone with sweetness and politeness.Muntaha’s mother was the victim of our society’s vicious norms. Quite often, she was brutally beaten up by her in-laws and managed to escape one day so she can save her daughter from witnessing violence at home.

She also approached the KIRAN School System in search of love and affection for her daughters and the good education as well. “KIRAN appeared to be the savior ofmy family or I had lost my daughters”, she says.

Muntaha had never been to school when she came to KIRAN. She seemed apprehensive and avoided any kind of socialization in the beginning. Over the time, through the benevolent ambiance provided by KIRAN, Muntaha started taking part in fun activities and showed interest in making friends and celebrating events with her peers. She developed good relation with her teachers. “KIRAN gave her the tongue, my daughter learned to speak up, learned to express herself”, says her mother. She is very friendly and caring to her mother and her younger sister.

KIRAN team encouraged her to attain confidence and helped her gain academic progress through educational and extra-curricular activities. She qualified the admission test for Habib Girls School on merit. Keeping up with good grades, she has also won the sports-medal for 1st position. She loves to paint pictures. As an ambitious patriot and an obedient follower of her teacher, she says, “I want todo something for Pakistan, I want become Sabina Aunty.”

Conclusion

Keeping in consideration the overwhelming stress a child has to go through in traumatic periods like poverty, violence, disasters, negligence, emotional and physical abuse, broken families, domestic violence, abandonment and careless parenting, schools systems need to be re-thought and redesigned to our need for a peaceful society. The implication is clear; all state level schools should be trained for intervention of trauma sensitive teaching methodology.


need for trauma sensitive schools in pakistan

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