If you are looking for an opportunity for social service but have time and commitment issues, Rahbar is just the thing for you. Only 7 Saturdays, 4-5 hours each time and you have an amazing experience to cherish for a long time, and if all goes as well as it did for me, you'd definitely want to come back for some more.
I first heard about Rahbar from a friend of mine who works in Coke and had attended Rahbar on behalf of her company. Rahbar is a program by TCF, a Pakistani based NGO that has pledged to provide quality education to the financially struggling segment of the society, literally picking kids off the streets and putting into their schools. TCF today humbly boasts of over a 1000 campuses across Pakistan and has strong network of support at home and abroad. When you hear about the story of TCF, you cannot help feeling inspired from the commitment and sincerity of the team behind it whose vision is to provide quality education to the economically weak, their motto being, why poor schools for poor kids!
While the academic aspect is efficiently managed, it was realized that character building is an avenue that also needed to be worked upon. Here Id like to clarify that if this point gives you any misleading impression, there's nothing wrong with these kids that they would need a special course on personality grooming. They are like your average school going kid, just more lucky! I say that because I believe personality grooming is an aspect that is highly neglected in our system, one that focuses mainly on grades and results but these kids are lucky to go through this amazing program. Yes, at times some kids have issues like loss of a parent, family politics, lack of communication with parents, lack of confidence, objection in pursuit of higher education, bad company or influence but if you really think about it, any kid can have these issues. So if you go out there thinking you will bring about a revolution, you may or you may not. What I can guarantee though is that if you really put your heart and soul into it, you will not only sow seeds of thought, positivity and change into their minds but would come back with a new perspective to happiness, life and success yourself, a perspective where none of these would seem unachievable.
Rahbar is a' Mentorship program aimed at the development of youth as responsible individuals and productive members of the society'. How do we do that? Well, for starters, we commit and we stand by it!All it takes is 7 Saturdays,4 -5 hours each time, going to a TCF campus and mentoring grade 9 and 10 students. Though it sounds quite easy, yet when one commits for volunteer work, the commitment level gets shaky at times and people act as if they are doing a huge favor by just showing up! It is all how you look at it! Once when I used example of an irregular co-mentor to justify to miss a session, my husband brought me to senses,"Are you doing this for yourself or her? Isn't it her loss that she is missing the experience? Your doing the same will not make you feel any better!" He was absolutely right! So, the first tip is to join in with full dedication and energy irrespective of the morale of others. Yes, it helps to have a charged up team but be the team in yourself when others don't live up to it without holding any grudges against them.
TCF has pick up points in major areas of the city like Defence, Abid market, Shaukat khanum etc and provides pick and drop facility to these points to the volunteers, taking them to TCF campuses across the city in their own vans. Volunteers come from varied age groups and backgrounds and that is what makes the experience so diverse and rich.
The program is designed beautifully where you get to know the students on a personal level, sharing your own life with them to make them comfortable enough to share theirs and along the way, you realize and observe your own weaknesses and theirs, how you may have stopped appreciating the little joys of life and how they have more to be thankful for than they realize!You start off with getting to know the kids, their interests, family, siblings, good and bad habits and so on. it doesn't come easy. While they are in awe of the bajis and bhais who have come to spend time with them, their eyes sparkling with excitement, they dont
want to give any negative impression and so are, at times reluctant to share their weak side. However, when you begin being honest about yourself, your mistakes as
daughters, your selfishness and impatience as sisters, a slight smile of understanding begins to appear on their lips as if they know what you mean and realize how they tend to do the same at times. Being the eldest, middle, youngest or only child seems to make a difference and it helps to know it to understand them better. Knowing what it feels to be a daughter and a mother, I could tell them what goes in the heart and mind of both. Ami may say shes
not hungry just because she wants you to eat to your hearts content. She may not say it, but she would love a hug and a kiss once in a while. She may be upset, not at you but because she is tired but doesn't want to admit it and would calm down the second you take that bucket load of laundry from her and wash it yourself. And while we talked about
all this, we were listening to ourselves too, and realized how wrong we had been on so many instances. It was a bitter sweet realization that made us want to
rush over and hug our moms and thank them for all they had done and borne for us!
I first heard about Rahbar from a friend of mine who works in Coke and had attended Rahbar on behalf of her company. Rahbar is a program by TCF, a Pakistani based NGO that has pledged to provide quality education to the financially struggling segment of the society, literally picking kids off the streets and putting into their schools. TCF today humbly boasts of over a 1000 campuses across Pakistan and has strong network of support at home and abroad. When you hear about the story of TCF, you cannot help feeling inspired from the commitment and sincerity of the team behind it whose vision is to provide quality education to the economically weak, their motto being, why poor schools for poor kids!
While the academic aspect is efficiently managed, it was realized that character building is an avenue that also needed to be worked upon. Here Id like to clarify that if this point gives you any misleading impression, there's nothing wrong with these kids that they would need a special course on personality grooming. They are like your average school going kid, just more lucky! I say that because I believe personality grooming is an aspect that is highly neglected in our system, one that focuses mainly on grades and results but these kids are lucky to go through this amazing program. Yes, at times some kids have issues like loss of a parent, family politics, lack of communication with parents, lack of confidence, objection in pursuit of higher education, bad company or influence but if you really think about it, any kid can have these issues. So if you go out there thinking you will bring about a revolution, you may or you may not. What I can guarantee though is that if you really put your heart and soul into it, you will not only sow seeds of thought, positivity and change into their minds but would come back with a new perspective to happiness, life and success yourself, a perspective where none of these would seem unachievable.
Rahbar is a' Mentorship program aimed at the development of youth as responsible individuals and productive members of the society'. How do we do that? Well, for starters, we commit and we stand by it!All it takes is 7 Saturdays,4 -5 hours each time, going to a TCF campus and mentoring grade 9 and 10 students. Though it sounds quite easy, yet when one commits for volunteer work, the commitment level gets shaky at times and people act as if they are doing a huge favor by just showing up! It is all how you look at it! Once when I used example of an irregular co-mentor to justify to miss a session, my husband brought me to senses,"Are you doing this for yourself or her? Isn't it her loss that she is missing the experience? Your doing the same will not make you feel any better!" He was absolutely right! So, the first tip is to join in with full dedication and energy irrespective of the morale of others. Yes, it helps to have a charged up team but be the team in yourself when others don't live up to it without holding any grudges against them.
TCF has pick up points in major areas of the city like Defence, Abid market, Shaukat khanum etc and provides pick and drop facility to these points to the volunteers, taking them to TCF campuses across the city in their own vans. Volunteers come from varied age groups and backgrounds and that is what makes the experience so diverse and rich.
The program is designed beautifully where you get to know the students on a personal level, sharing your own life with them to make them comfortable enough to share theirs and along the way, you realize and observe your own weaknesses and theirs, how you may have stopped appreciating the little joys of life and how they have more to be thankful for than they realize!You start off with getting to know the kids, their interests, family, siblings, good and bad habits and so on. it doesn't come easy. While they are in awe of the bajis and bhais who have come to spend time with them, their eyes sparkling with excitement, they dont
want to give any negative impression and so are, at times reluctant to share their weak side. However, when you begin being honest about yourself, your mistakes as
daughters, your selfishness and impatience as sisters, a slight smile of understanding begins to appear on their lips as if they know what you mean and realize how they tend to do the same at times. Being the eldest, middle, youngest or only child seems to make a difference and it helps to know it to understand them better. Knowing what it feels to be a daughter and a mother, I could tell them what goes in the heart and mind of both. Ami may say shes
not hungry just because she wants you to eat to your hearts content. She may not say it, but she would love a hug and a kiss once in a while. She may be upset, not at you but because she is tired but doesn't want to admit it and would calm down the second you take that bucket load of laundry from her and wash it yourself. And while we talked about
all this, we were listening to ourselves too, and realized how wrong we had been on so many instances. It was a bitter sweet realization that made us want to
rush over and hug our moms and thank them for all they had done and borne for us!
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