wfn.org | Christian schools in Pakistan are reborn

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Note #6171 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

29-August-2000
00309

Christian schools in Pakistan are reborn

Iowa City church instrumental in rebuilding Pasrur school

by Jenny Stoner
and Jerry Van Marter

PASRUR, Pakistan -- Not far from Pakistan's troubled borders with India and
Kashmir lies the town of Pasrur. Here, donkeys pull carts of commerce,
horses draw taxis called "tongas" and water buffalo wander to and from
nearby pastures down the main thoroughfare in front of Christian Girls
School.
	The 100-year-old school, one of dozens of Christian schools in Pakistan
created by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is a sparkling academic home to
more than 500 Pakistani children, both Christian and Muslim.
	But it hasn't been this way for long.
	Thirty years ago, when a strict Islamic government came to power in
Pakistan, the new rulers confiscated virtually all of the PC(USA) schools in
Pakistan. Over the next quarter-century, most of them fell into disuse or
disrepair.
	Finally, in 1998 -- with the state education system in complete tatters --
the Pakistan government began returning the schools to the church.  The
Presbyterian Education Board (PEB) of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan
has reopened five schools since August 1998 and with the support of the
PC(USA) is working to open more as fast as funds are made available.
	Elaine Markuson, a retired educator and member of First Presbyterian Church
of Iowa City, Iowa, is serving as a consultant to PEB as a PC(USA) Volunteer
in Mission and her congregation has been instrumental in the transformation
of Christian Girls School in Pasrur.
	"When I visited the Christian Girls School for the first time in October
1999, the institution had 520 students and a staff of 22," she said.  "Of
those, 310 students had no desks, 270 students squatted on stools in the
barren courtyard under the blazing sun, 542 human beings had to share four
barely functioning bathroom stalls and there was no library."
	First Church launched "Classroom Crusade," which raised $10,000 for the
school.
	When Markuson returned to Pasrur in April this year, she found the school
equipped with 320 new desks, an additional classroom, new restroom
facilities, a new well with a generator and a water tank, and a modest
library room that now houses $800 worth of new books.
	First Church has also committed $50,000 over the next five years to
construct a residential hostel in Pasrur.
	"No words are adequate to express the great thankfulness felt by PEB for
this expression of faith in them and in the children of Pakistan," said Zeb
Zaman, chair of the PEB board.
	Twenty other congregations, three presbyteries and a number of individuals
have also contributed to the rebuilding of the Pakistan schools. 
Contributions may be sent to ECO#862370 (Pakistan Denationalized Schools),
Office of Global Education, Room 320, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY
40202.

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