How the school in Bunner Dass came to be
The school in Bunner Dass is an initiative of a passionate mountain climber, Renata Lewandowskawho has taken part in many trekking expeditions in the Himalayas and Karakorum and Agnieszki Licznerskiejwho, having heard from Renata about the poverty and plight of children in Pakistan, joined in organising aid for them. During her frequent visits to Pakistan, Renata saw the hopelessness of the plight of the children there - poverty, lack of education and an endless circle of multidimensional poverty that affects families for many generations. Education is an opportunity for the younger generation of Bunner Dass children to close this circle of poverty.
Renata and Agnieszka have been caring for the children of Gilgit Baltistan in Pakistan since June 2019. Diamer is a region located high in the Himalayas on the north-west face of the eight-thousander Nanga Parbat. It is home to several villages inhabited by people living from pastoralism and also from high altitude tourism. The villages, far away from the larger settlements and towns, are very poor, the people live very modestly, and there is often no access to water or electricity. Winters in the Himalayas are harsh, so we started by sending warm clothes to orphaned children from a school in the town of Skardu located at altitude 2228 in Gilgit-Baltistan province. She was inspired to do this Tomek Mackiewiczwho, during his winter expeditions to Nanga Parbat, brought warm jackets, boots and other necessary winter clothing to the villages for the kids.
Seeing the needs of children and families in those regions, Renata decided to set up a foundation in Pakistan, which was finally registered in Chilas on 12 November 2020 under the name of "Nanga Parbat Children Education and Welfare Foundation Diamer". Immediately after registering the foundation, Renata started building a school for the children from below Nanga Parbat. This was also when the idea of long-distance adoption was born. 30 children aged between 4 and 12 were adopted and the money paid by the adoptive parents covered the cost of uniforms, school supplies and books. Everyone also received a large packet of sweets. We are still looking for parents of the heart, as there are currently as many as 160 children attending our school.
The Foundation's main objective was to build a school that all children could attend without paying tuition, registration or administrative costs. In our school, children study for free. The school also provides books and school supplies.
See how our school came into being:
How our school operates
The school in Bunner Dass was established to provide an opportunity for education all the children of the village. Enrolling a child in our school is completely free of charge for the parent - there are no registration fees, monthly fees or administrative fees. Every child studying at our school each year receives textbooks and all the necessary materials for learning - notebooks, pens, crayons, pencils and all the rest of the school supplies, including a backpack and a pencil case.
The school also employs teachers whose salaries are paid in full from donations collected for the purpose.
We do not interfere with the way Pakistanis think and we do not want to change the culture of the people of Bunner Dass. However, we try to pay special attention to having girls in our school. In order to achieve this, we have had to engage in discussions with families and convince them that an educated girl is more likely to make it in life as an adult woman, and can be an economic mainstay for her parents, having the chance to create her own business or become gainfully employed. Educating girls is also very important because in developing countries girls and women are very often victims of violence. An educated woman knows how to seek help, report to the relevant institutions, or report a crime and go to court.
Our school is certified by the Ministry of Education, which guarantees that the children who study there are covered by the state education programme and can continue their further education at vocational, secondary and then higher education levels without any problems.