And Veeda Javaid and Shagufta Shahzad, representing the Presbyterian Education Board of Pakistan, were eager to tell their stories, to help Americans understand how important their work in Christian schools is, particularly for women and girls who don’t have the kind of freedom to which these American women are so accustomed.
Javaid and Shahzad are compelled to help Presbyterians in other places appreciate the history of Christian missionary involvement in Pakistan and the importance of continuing those relationships today.
Caroline Ryan, for example, is a teacher from Atlanta and a member of Peachtree Church. The congregation supports a mission worker, Cheryl Burke, who serves as dean of students at Forman Christian College in Lahore.
Ryan has arranged a teacher exchange program, through which teachers from the United States travel to Pakistan and lead professional development workshops for educators there.
She calls this work a “ministry of presence and encouragement” for the Pakistani women and “an inspiration and a huge blessing to me,” although a trip she had planned for this year had to be cancelled because of tensions in the Lahore region.
The American teachers who’ve made the trip train Pakistani teachers in conversational English and share knowledge about such things as early childhood development, reading comprehension, and techniques for teaching math. Last year, two principals made the trip, and worked with Pakistani principals on strategic planning, setting and meeting goals. In return, the American educators have learned much, Ryan said, from the Pakistanis’ hospitality, their emphasis on relationships, and how much they do with limited resources.
“We really feel like they take every little thing you give them and stretch it as far as it can go and share it with as many people as they can,” Ryan said. “They don’t take anything for granted.”
Seeing how creative the schools are with the supplies and how dedicated they are to providing education to girls who otherwise would not receive it, “you feel like you’ve brought them a glass of water and they’ve given you a bottle of champagne.”
In the mid-1800s, American Presbyterian missionaries started preaching, teaching, and educating in Pakistan, working with “the untouchable ones, the poorest of the poor, the least of the least,” Javaid said. That early commitment planted seeds of deep faith in some Pakistani families, and a commitment to sustaining Christian schools that have continued to the present.
Things changed dramatically in recent years, with the growth in power of the Taliban and the government nationalizing of church-run schools in the 1970s. Islamic schools now number in the tens of thousands in Pakistan. But the government began relinquishing control of the Christian schools about a decade ago, and since then the Presbyterian Education Board has been working to strengthen its schools.
The board operates schools and hostels for both boys and girls, many of them in villages and remote areas near Lahore, with a combined enrollment of about 4,000 students. About 40 percent of the students are Christian and the rest Muslim.
“We strongly believe education is the key,” Javaid told the women in Louisville, who had been invited to come to learn more about Javaid’s work and the status of women in Pakistan.
Javaid said she could tell “story after story” of how girls suffer in Pakistan. One program the board runs is the Struggle, Hope & Empowerment (SHE) program, which assists women and girls who are particularly vulnerable. Some have been forced out of their own homes and have no money and nowhere to stay. When families do not have enough money, sometimes they choose not to feed the girls.
If a woman is raped, “it is very hard,” Javaid said. … The family blames her, (saying) ‘You attracted the men.’ … The family closes the door on her.”
Shahzad told of one woman whose husband forced her to leave the house after they had three children — all girls. He blamed his wife, saying: “She has no ability to give me a baby son, a baby boy,” Shahzad said, and forced her to leave, along with their daughters.
The woman went to her parents, who told her they had no room and she should go back to her husband. With the help of a pastor, the woman ended up at SHE, where she learned job skills. Eventually, her husband apologized for his behavior and asked her to return home, which she did.
But many of the women in the SHE shelter stay for three to six months — long enough to give them some confidence and a start in developing marketable skills, Shahzad said. “You can’t imagine what type of risk and what type of situations women in Pakistan face,” she said.
In another family, Javaid said, the father worked at a brick kiln. But he got sick, took out a loan, and the debt began compounding. His sons began working at the kiln, trying to pay off the debt, essentially becoming indentured servants. But the kiln owner then asked for the man’s daughter in repayment. So the brothers brought their sister to SHE for protection. She received training as a nurse, began working overseas, and in time sent enough money back to buy the release of her brothers.
Asked whether their work is dangerous, Javaid said that “every female in Pakistan is at risk,” but those who work with the Presbyterian Education Board are careful. They try to avoid confrontation and travel in groups. Many on the staff come from families educated in the Christian schools, including, she said, her husband’s mother and sisters, who all became teachers.
Javaid is frustrated, however, that more American Presbyterians do not seem familiar with Presbyterian mission history in her country, and that more individuals and congregations do not provide financial support. With more money, more students can be educated. The Presbyterian Education Board offers sponsorship opportunities that could cover the costs for an individual student or a particular school.
Ryan, the teacher from Atlanta, said she’s seen interest in the educational system in Pakistan and Afghanistan surge in response to Greg Mortenson’s popular book Three Cups of Tea, which recounts how he tried and failed to climb the K2 peak, became sick and disoriented, and was taken care of by people from a village in northern Pakistan. The children of that village had no school, so after he recovered, Mortenson promised he would return to build one. Since then, he’s established a series of schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, although in a different region from where the Presbyterian Education Board does its work.
“Three Cups of Tea has shined a light on a part of the world and the culture and the history that people just didn’t know much about. … Now is the time — we need to understand,” said Ryan. “We’d best understand what’s going on over there.”
For herself, “I’ve learned that even though there are differences, we’re alike in so many ways too,” she said. “They have the same goals. They want the best for their families. They want their children to have opportunities. There are so many wonderful people, who are not what we see in the headlines. … I just realize how much we have and how easy things are for us. We take that for granted.”
