International organisation to promote education

International organisation to promote education
Karachi: The Peaceful Schools International (PSI), a Canadian non-profit, charitable organisation has started to promote peace education in Lyari. PSI head Dr Hetty Van Gurp with the organistion's Pakistan coordinator Muhammad Nadim Ghazi is nowadays visiting Lyari to identify schools to seek support of the schools management and Lyari Town Municipal Administration.

One of Karachi's oldest neighbourhoods, Lyari, has mostly been in the middle of a war between various armed groups which has disturbed the education process in the area and this initiative by PSI is being welcomed by the people of Lyari as well as by the town administration.

PSI was formed in 2001 by Dr Hetty Van Gurp, whose elder son, Ben, died when he was 14 years old as a result of a bullying incident in Nova Scotia in 1991. Since then, Dr Van Gurp has been involved in this mission.

PSI provides support to schools that have declared a commitment to creating and maintaining a culture of peace. It has over 300 member schools around the world where students, teachers and community members work together to ensure that everyone feels safe.

Dr Van Gurp's teaching career has included extensive and varied assignments in Canada and the USA. In addition to teaching public school, she has taught students with special needs as a resource teacher and as a teacher of the blind. She has also been principal of an elementary school in Nova Scotia. Currently, she is a part-time member of the faculty of Mount Saint Vincent University.

She is the author of four books, and has been serving as a peace education consultant to schools across Canada and internationally since 1991.

During this time, she introduced the concept of peer mediation to schools in Nova Scotia and still conducts regular training sessions for students, educators and community members.

Meanwhile Muhammad Nadim Ghazi said that they are planning to identify 30 schools in the city initially out of which 75 per cent would be selected from Lyari. Ghazi has got training in PSI headquarter in Canada to achieve the goal in Pakistan.

He said that they are planning to extend their work in 300 schools all over the country, mostly in conflict-hit zones. They have provided training to 400 teachers of Karachi out of which 150 teachers belong to Lyari neighbourhood. He said that they are trying to convince both government and private schools in the neighbourhood.

Ghazi said they act as a catalyst for innovative ideas that help to build an environment in schools where everyone feels safe, respected and valued. PSI's vision is to create a global network of peaceful schools, he added.

In this regard Lyari Town Nazim Mahmood Hashim said that they are happy to see the eagerness of the international organisation to work in their neighbourhood, providing training to teachers and introducing valuable syllabus to promote the peace education through their unique demonstrations within the educational institutes.

The town Nazim added that the law and order situation in Lyari is improving now and the people who had migrated from the area to other areas due to bad law and order situation are returning. He expressed the hope that this exercise would prove to be helpful for the poverty-stricken community.

He said that the teachers and students would get a golden opportunity to learn how to promote peace in their neighbourhood.