Our Stories

Master Ayub’s Academy

Nazeera Husan is now 13 years old. Sophie Tahir, our founder, met Nazeera when she was nine years old, attending Master Ayub’s evening school. These are children from slums in Islamabad, and work during day to support their families. Closer to the night Master Ayub holds a school in public park across the road from slums to hold classes under open skies and under shadows of trees. This is when Sophie realized how much she had taken for granted, and then she saw Nazeera. Nazeera looked so much like her, and when Sophie went to speak to her she realized how incredibly intelligent Nazeera was, and came to the conclusion that their lives were only different because of their reach of resources. That night Sophie taught Nazeera what she had learned from going to school in America, and saw that the other children were listening in. She began to share her knowledge with all of the children and was greatly surprised to see how interested they were. From here, the idea sprouted. When Sophie came back home, she began hosting seminars online to explain what she knew, and began running donation drives to send to children like Nazeera in third world countries. Recently, a member of Sophie’s team was able to reunite with Nazeera and informed her that while she had been unable to keep up with the live streams,  she had gotten the resources Sophie had been sending. Nazeera has grown to be one of the smartest in her school, helping the other children to comprehend as well as her.