Hoshyar means "Aware"

Our guiding principle is the recognition of the highly developed skills and traditions of people in all areas of the world.

Hoshyar Foundation values the abilities and problem-solving skills inherent in developing areas of the world.

 

Help Flood Victims in Pakistan - Donate Now.
Pakistan Relief Operations Doctors Without Borders.

Pakistan, Drowning in Neglect. Ali Sethi's op-ed piece in the New York Times discussing important dynamics in the country.

Q&A: Maryam's Mission. An interview about the daily lives of those struggling to survive the warfare of Pakistan's tribal districts.
Roots of Women's Woes in Pakistan. Columnist from Dawn, I. A. Rahman, on gender inequality in Pakistan.
Pakistan & Times Square. Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof on investing in Pakistani schools.
Issues in Education. A recent report gives a gloomy picture of education in Pakistan.
Press Release from HRCP on the Women of Swat. Newest press release from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Press Release from HRCP. Recent press release from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Educational Development - Comment. Government giving short drift to education of the masses.
Swat: Education in Disarray - Dawn.com. Recent editorial on the condition in Swat Valley.
Curbs on Women - The Daily Times. Recent publication highlighting the pressing need for girls' education more than ever before.
The Pakistan Test. NYTimes. While the U.S. government is fighting Islamic extremism in Pakistan with bombs, private donations are quietly financing a more important campaign: education.
It Takes a School, Not Missiles. NYTimes. Greg Mortenson has spent less than one-ten-thousandth as much as the Bush administration to help fight terrorism in Pakistan. Instead of blowing things up, he builds schools.
JOURNEY OF HOPE. An in-depth report from the Central Asia Institute by Chronicle assistant managing editor Karin Ronnow and chief photographer Deirdre Eitel, based on their summer 2007 trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan. The report documents the work of Bozeman resident Greg Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute.
Pakistan: Free to learn, by Jonathan Foreman, Daily Telegraph, Feb 16, 2008: After a disastrous attempt to climb K2, former US Army medic Greg Mortenson had to be nursed back to health by the inhabitants of a remote and impoverished Pakistani village. He vowed to repay them by building a local school, and has now built more than 60 in similar areas across south Asia.
Kinkri Devi Is Dead at 82; Fought Illegal Mining in India, by Haresh Pandya, NY Times, Jan 6, 2008: “It wasn't in my destiny to study,” she said, “but I don't want others to suffer the way I did for want of education.”
Science education for empowerment and social change: a case study of a teacher educator in urban Pakistan, by Rubina Zahur
This High Dropout Rate, Dawn, Aug 1, 2007
Adopt a public school in Pakistan, Human Development Foundation (HDF, HDFIA)
Mukhtar Mai Women's Welfare Organization
Days of Rage, Letter from Pakistan: Asma Jahangir, a human-rights lawyer, has fought for a secular civil society, The New Yorker, Jul 23, 2007
Best of before:
Pakistan Is, by Barry Bearak, NY Times, Dec 7, 2003: "... According to the World Bank, more than a third of the nation's 10-year-olds have never attended class."
is a secular, non-profit, U.S.-based organization whose purpose is to raise and distribute funds in support of human empowerment through female education.

Hoshyar takes as its primary mandate the goal of increasing girls' and women's access to education at all levels, especially the secondary school level. We work primarily in Pakistan but look to participate in other underserved areas of South Asia as well.

We promote a variety of programs in female literacy. Projects are identified through research, field trips and in consultation with local community projects. They include an array of incentives designed to increase female literacy and empowerment through enrollment of young women in educational institutions, and to retain students once they are enrolled.

Current projects focus on building schools in communities where they don't exist and on supporting schools that lack government support. We also support existing community education projects that lack the necessary resources to keep them running. We run projects in the Lahore area of the Punjab and in Mansehra District and Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province) of Pakistan.

In 2010, we undertook support of a dozen schools in the Swat Valley which were destroyed in the fighting in 2009 between the Taliban and the Pakistani military. We pay interim teachers' salaries and rent on temporary facilities while the destroyed schools are either repaired or rebuilt.


Hoshyar is a legally registered public charity in the state of Texas with 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, (EIN #20-5768400).

Al-Hamd is a school in Baagarian Village, near Lahore, Pakistan, established by a single family in 2005 with the purpose of fighting illiteracy in their community. Supervised by the al-Hamd Citizen Community Board, the school provides free admission, textbooks, uniforms, medical check-ups and evening tuition to 156 students, grades K-10.

With support from Hoshyar, al-Hamd moved in 2007 to a larger facility. In 2008, it opened a computer lab, initiated computer training and pedagogical training for al-Hamd's teachers, and expanded class instruction to include high school classes for girls.

A new school building for al-Hamd was constructed in the spring, the new school building was successfully inaugurated, and the first high school girls have already graduated from these new premises in Spring 2010.


Of note: U.S. education funding to Pakistan is one-fifteenth its military support and Pakistani funding for public education remains woefully inadequate (1.8% of GDP). Thirteen million Pakistani children ages 5 to 9--out of 27 million total--are not enrolled in school at all, leaving them exposed to extremist mentors.
© 2010 Hoshyar Foundation