The Maria-Helena Foundation

(Registered Charity Number 89250 2725 RR0001)

4616 West 13th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6R 2V7

Telephone: (604) 228-9885	e-mail: iqbal@mail.ubc.ca

www.mariahelenafoundation.org

Annual Newsletter	November, 2015

Dear Family & Friends:

We have a new partner in Pakistan: Friends Welfare Association (FWA), based in Mansehra, north of Islamabad - a very picturesque hilly area. For the first time we are starting a program of middle school education for girls in collaboration with FWA. In Pakistan, middle schools cover Grades 6, 7 and 8. We have sponsored two three-classroom schools in two villages of Mansehra district. The land was provided by the people of the village, we provided capital for infrastructure, and an American organization named Hoshyar Foundation is paying teachers’ salaries. The schools are managed by FWA. Each school is an earthquake-resistant-prefabricated-structure assembled at the site. In 2005 a huge earthquake hit that area; hence new school buildings have to follow a certain building code. Each school has cost us about $25,000. The two schools were opened in April this year.

As you know, our mandate is to provide educational and medical aid to poor families in South Asia, and to offer bursaries to qualified university students in financial need in Canada. Over the past several years we have concentrated mainly on providing educational aid and skills training to the poor in Pakistan. All our projects are in Pakistan and are in partnership with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The Bursary Fund at the University of British Columbia is continuing. Below we present a brief description of our programs.

IN PAKISTAN: EDUCATION

A. Permanent Primary Schools: (Program started in 2000). Typically, the local community provides the land. We pay for construction of the school building, consisting of six classrooms, as well as for furniture and equipment. This costs us a total of somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000. Our Pakistani partners manage the schools, charging low fees and covering the operating losses by donations collected locally. In these schools, which are self-sustaining after building has been completed, tuition fees are generally about $4 per month, and a teacher’s salary is between $40 and $80 a month. All schools are co-educational and non-sectarian, and the teachers are almost exclusively women. We have helped establish seventeen such schools, and two are under construction. On page 3 is a table of all schools completed and under construction.

B. Temporary One-Room Primary Schools (Program started in 2001). These are one-room, one-teacher schools meant for the poorest children and for working children. Classes are held at the teacher’s home or in a community building. Students do not pay any fees. We provide them with books, notebooks, and mats or benches to sit on, and also pay the teacher's salary. All schools are co-educational and non-sectarian. In the Pakistani school system, the primary school academic program is five years (60 months). In the home-school system, due to fewer holidays, the same curriculum is covered in 36-40 months. Typically, the cost of supporting one such school of 25 to 35 students is about $1,200 per year. Currently, we are sponsoring 15 such schools, with an enrolment of about 500 students, in partnership with Kawish Welfare Trust. These schools are in several villages in the district of Bahawalnagar. These schools are not registered with the Government; hence also called non-formal schools.

C. Nobel Laureate Dr. Abdus Salam Science Scholarships for High School Girls: (Program started in 2014). We have at present 16 girls in Grades 9 and 10 receiving these scholarships valued at $12 per month.

D. Fee Concessions: (Program started in 2009). This is an ongoing program for primary school children, which offers fee-concessions, formerly called Scholarships, valued at $4 per month per student. Currently, 200 such fee-concessions are being offered in three schools, all in Karachi.

IN PAKISTAN: SKILLS TRAINING

We have helped establish two small vocational schools in which young girls and women learn traditional needlecraft and sewing. This training helps the invisible household economy of poor families, and can potentially generate income from outside work.

1. Nani Maria Vocational School, Lahore (2000). In this two-room school, situated in Kot Lakhpat, Lahore, the enrollment has varied from 20 to 40 students. Al-Khidmat Foundation manages this school.

2. Dr. Marilyn Mohan Vocational School, Pind Dadan Khan (2007). This one-room vocational school is

located in Khewra, district Jhelum, situated within a girls’ high school.

IN PAKISTAN: HEALTH

1. Amina Jabbar Trust Hospital, Lahore (1998). This, our first project, is an outpatient hospital, the size of a single-family detached bungalow in Vancouver. It is managed by Al-Khidmat Foundation. About 80 patients per day receive a medical examination and 3 days of medication at a nominal cost of 25 cents per patient, about one-sixth the cost of private care.

2. Medical Examination of Primary School Children (Program started in 2005). At a cost of only $1 per child per year, about 1,000 children in primary schools in Bahawalnagar are examined and their health reports sent to their parents.

IN CANADA: BURSARY

Maria-Helena Bursary Fund, University of British Columbia (2000). The bursaries are awarded annually from the income generated from the capital of this fund. The university selects the recipients.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. Let us know if you have any questions.

Dr. Muhammad Iqbal	Dr. Diane Fast

President	Vice-President

The Maria-Helena Foundation

(Registered Charity No: 89250 2725 RR0001)

4616 West 13th Ave Vancouver, B.C. V6R 2V7

Amount of Donation: $_____________(Make cheques payable to The Maria-Helena Foundation)

Please indicate: For projects in Pakistan_________, or for bursary at UBC________, or for both____________

Family Name:__________________________________First Name:__________________________________

(Please print legibly, thank you)

Address:	_____________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________ Postal Code:___________________________________

Telephone:	(_________)_____________________ e-mail________________________________________

PERMANENT PRIMARY/MIDDLE SCHOOLS

Name of School	Year Established	District (Village) Province	Student Capacity	Pakistani Partner
1. Fazal Noor Primary School	2000	Lahore (Kot Lakhpat) Punjab	400	Al-Khidmat
2. Haji Bostan Primary School	2001	Lahore (Ghaziabad) Punjab	300	Anjuman Ghaziabad
3. Dadi Helena Primary School	2004	Lahore (Dina Nath) Punjab	400	Care Foundation
4. Maria-Helena Primary School	2006	Jhelum (Daryala Jalip) Punjab	300	Tameer-e-Millat
5. Hazara TM Public School (combined primary and high school rebuilt after the 2005 earthquake)	2007	Shinkiari Khyber Pakhtoon Kh. Province	450	Tameer-e-Millat
6. Ratwal Residential Primary School (For orphans of the 2005 earthquake. We provided six classrooms)	2008	Islamabad (Ratwal) Punjab	200	Tameer-e-Millat
7. Maria-Helena Primary School	2008	Khanewal (Wajhianwala) Punjab	210	Tameer-e-Millat
8. Maria-Helena Primary School	2008	Jhelum (Pind Dadan Khan) Punjab	Tameer-e-Millat
9. Maria-Helena Primary School	2008	Jhelum (Lilla village) Punjab	300	Tameer-e-Millat
10. Maria-Helena Primary School	2009	Jhelum (Jethal village) Punjab	300	Tameer-e-Millat
11. Maria-Helena Primary School	2009	Jhelum (Wara Buland) Punjab	300	Tameer-e-Millat
12. Lieba-Helena Primary School	2011	Jhelum (Sugail village) Punjab	210	Tameer-e-Millat
13. Talis Primary School ( rebuilt after the 2010 floods)	2012	Talis (Talis village) Skardu	Tameer-e-Millat
14. Maria-Helena Primary School	2014	Mandi Bahauddin (Dandka Village) Punjab	200	Tameer-e-Millat
15. HDF Maria-Helena Primary School, to be extended to a high school for girls in 2016	2014	Islamabad (Kalya village) Punjab	200	Human Development Foundation
16. Maryam-Halima Middle School for Girls	2015	Mansehra (Shangri) PKP	90	Friends Welfare Asso
17. Maryam-Halima Middle School for Girls	2015	Mansehra (Raiter) PKP	90	Friends Welfare Asso
18. HDF Maria-Helena Primary School	Under Construction	District Zhob Zhob Town, Balochistan	200	Human DevelopmentFoundation
19. HDF Maria-Helena Primary School	Under construction	Rahim Yar Khan (Village 99-IL) Punjab	200	Human Development Foundation

A Glimpse at Our Projects in Pakistan

Fig. 1 The Three-Classroom Middle School in Shangri	Fig. 2 Middle School Students of Shangri in Group Work
Fig. 3 The Three-Classroom Middle School in Raiter	Fig. 4 Distribution of Nobel Laureate Dr. Abdus Salam Science Scholarships to high school girls