BOS BEHBUD COMMUNITY MELA

Names of Behbud students sponsored by the BOS community in 2012-13 were: Asif Latif (Class 1), Najaf Rehman (Class 5), Shahzaib Ramzan (Class 5), Arbaz Khan (Class 5), Mazhar K. (Class 5) Abdul Dayan M. Masthan (Class 6), Sheraz M. Saleem (Class 6), Abdul Muthali Rahim (Class 6), Azizullah M. Iqbal (Class 6), Haris Najab Khan (Class 6), M. Luqman (Class 7), Noman Fazil (Class 7), Asif Ali (Class 8), Hameed Khan Yousuf (Class 9), Feroz Khan Sultan M. (Class 9). Your generosity made a year of education possible for these children. Thank you!

May 2013

TO THE BRITISH OVERSEAS SCHOOL

We are writing to express our deep appreciation for your generous sponsorship. A signicant number of underprivileged students got an opportunity to receive quality education by attending our schools, through the kind support of sponsors such as you... Khadijah Manzur, Chairperson Behbud Education
Last year BOS hosted a lavish mela for small children from low income families and gave them a memory of laughter and balloons. And at the same time the BOS community raised enough money to sponsor the education of a number of Behbud students. This year BOS once again took on the challenge of putting together a beautiful mela for 75 plus primary students attending Behbud schools in Clifton and near Kala Pul. Most BOS secondary students came together on prep day to create goody bags and wall art for our little guests; while selected students from different classes acted as hosts on the actual day of the mela. We raised sufcient corporate sponsorships to cover the costs of the mela. Furthermore, through the generosity of our sponsors, the private donations from caring parents, the enthusiasm of our students to hold a Behbud Bake Sale (to raise even more money for scholarships) - BOS will again be able to make a valuable nancial contribution to Behbud Associations Education Fund. We have raised a net of Rs. 130,000 for Behbud; and so I am happy to inform BOS students, admin, parents and teachers that this year thirteen children will receive a year of education at Behbudsponsored by our efforts. At Behbud, passionate, committed people are doing everything they can to transform their communitiesoften against great odds. Whether you contribute monetarily, in kind or with your time, you can be sure that your gift will have a tremendous impact (website: http://www.behbud.org/). Main Behbud Karachi Center in Clifton: ST 9, Block I, Scheme 5 Kehkashan, Clifton 7550. And so our grassroots effort, to provide these Behbud children with a wonderful mela goes beyond just a day of service and fun. We as the BOS community are fostering a culture of sharing and hope. Together, we make a wonderful difference!

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Mela Day in Student Words:

The doors opened and adorable little children ltered in with huge smiles of awe and wonder spread across their faces. Some of them immediately went for the jumping castle, others shyly approached our stalls. We were told to smile kindly and bend down while talking to them in Urdu. This might have sounded a bit forced at rst, but when we actually came to it, those gestures of kindness came naturally.! There was renowned Urdu music playing, delivering surging vibes of excitement and enthusiasm. Mascots (Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh) brought smiles to the childrens faces. There was free cotton candy, juice, popcorn, cupcakes, sandwiches and confectionaries for the children to dig into. The children loved the magic show. By the end, Umbo Jumbo Chicken Jumbo was on repeat in our heads - we were glad to see how the children reacted to the illusions (Hamaad, Mir Ali, Mikail, Daniyal & Bashir, Year 10)

We!offered various activities, including!sand art, drawing, and making nameplates. This was then backed up with an enjoyable magic show, which denitely put a smile on the little childrens'!faces! The gym was decorated with balloons and colours to make it more welcoming and there was food that everyone loved! (Sana, Year 7). I enjoyed the childrens antics and enjoyed it more because I knew it was for a good cause (Mustafa K., Year 7). Seeing the delight on their faces during the magic show and the joyful smiles when they received the goody bags was the greatest reward anyone could wish for (Mustafa H., Year 9). This experience made us realize that even the smallest thing can bring happiness to someones life. A simple gesture can make your day. We were denitely inspired and we hope everyone who attended this event was inspired and motivated too (Hafzah, Zainab & Roshanay, Year 10).!

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Pictures from Prep Day - 4th May 2013

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The winners of the BOS Behbud Bake Sale competition - to see which class sold the MOST goodies for charity was Year 9. Congratulations to the entire class on their teamwork!

Prep Day and Behbud Bake Sale in BOS Student Words:

Prep Day: The theme of the mela was childrens' hopes and dreams. There was a great deal of exuberance and energy as we began lling in blank and boring paper bags with colour. Students were allowed to make their own playlist consisting of songs that represented their class tastes in music (Noor, Hafsa, Sultan, Alyzeh, Shahrukh & Ammaar, Year 10) The colorfully decorated goodie bags sported inspirational quotes to cartoon characters to abstract designs that the children would nd appealing. Many students were generous enough to donate useful items such as books, toys, clothes (Jafar, Ahmed, Alyaan, Humairah & Miraal, Year 10).! Our poster was about education. It focused on the signicance of education and how one can accomplish!one's dreams through it. I was tired, but!I felt!good. I felt that through this small effort I might be able to bring a smile!to someones face! (Mustafa S., Year 7). It allowed everyone to have fun and enjoy themselves, while contributing their efforts to making bags and posters for the Behbud kids (Aadil, Year 9).! Bake Sale: The Behbud Bake Sale was an amazingly loud and successful event. Each class was told too prepare a separate theme and speech to be put on their entrance cards. The speeches varied across the different classes - we chose Chris Tucker. On the day of the bake sale the different classes had separate tables set up with all their scrumptious delicacies piled up by the dozen. As soon as students came!in too buy the delicacies, the competition started. Every class started sending out their best sellers in a healthy competition to!earn the highest prot. Sellers' voices boomed across the hall as the lahori samosas and Belgian chocolate brownies-from Switzerland were marketed. By the end of the bake sale, the entire secondary school had made a staggering prot of 32,000 rupees which was to be donated to charity (Alyaan, Year 10) The Bake Sale was a great success, and it was lovely to see the BOS secondary students volunteering enthusiastically to make a difference to the Behbud educational experience (Maheen Ahmad, Teaching Assistant).!

After deductions the Bake Sale generated Rs. 32,000 plus in prots.!This should be a considerable source of pride for year 7-10 and it motivates them to believe that together they can achieve remarkable things.!BOS Staff and parents helped them gain that sense of ownership.

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Abbas Town Education Fund:

According to the Express Tribune : The blast!took place in a street lined with apartment buildings and myriad small shops on both sides. The bomb went off right outside Iqra City and Rabia Flower apartments.! The Abbas town blast - a massive bombing in Abbas Town on Sunday 3rd March 2013, killed more than 45 people including women and children, and injured more than 135. Buildings fell on people and according to initial estimates, 40 to 50 apartments were destroyed.! After the devastating Abbas Town bomb blast took place, we, BOS as a school, felt it was important to aid these victims suffering a huge loss. It was essential to provide help. While different charities have been working night and day to provide help - BOS decided to focus on the!issue of ensuring that the surviving children!continue to receive education.! We felt it was important that the survivors know they are not alone. We would like to thank everyone who participated in raising money for the victims of Abbas Town (Humairah, Year 10 & Rawal, Year 7).

We have raised a total of Rs. 340,000 for the continuing education of the survivors. This money will be given to the coordinating head Mr. Akbar Hussain with the Imamia Education Center at Imam Bargah Masjid. Thank You. !! Names of Private BOS Donors to the Abbas Town Education Fund: Syma Vayani, Erum Shah, Syed Aamir Sajjad, Osman Asghar Khan & Mehrnaz Khan, Tooba Aamir, Mariam Reza, Syed Saeed Reza., Salaar Abbas, Mariam Hamdani & Zeb Hamdani, Maliha Bangash & Sinan Noor Gilani, Fiza Shafqat Hasan, Zehra, Mustafa & Adeela Siddiqi. (Also Rs. 80,000 corporate sponsorship by English Biscuits). Names of Private Donors to Behbud:! Sadia Mohammad, Maryam Abbas, Zahra Habib, Shelina Junejo, Zehra, Mustafa & Adeela Siddiqi, Sara Khan. (Also Rs 8,050 leftover from PTA members collection box for the goody bags). My thanks to Ali Hamza Afghan & Humza Gulzar for purchasing juices for the Behbud Mela out of their pocket money. Also my thanks to Mr. Edwards & Mr. Thursby for sorting out discontinued textbooks that were then donated to the Behbud Secondary School.!

lovely smiles

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Pictures from Mela Day - 18th May 2013

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THANK YOUS....
The smiles on the little ones' faces is worth much more than we can ever do for them.. but whatever brings that smile on.... Let's keep at it! (BOS) thank you for organising this event... It was fabulous! Down to the last balloon that was handed out to the children! Just BRILLIANT! (Adiba Peshimam, BOS PTA )

I want to acknowledge all the people who helped make the Behbud Mela such a huge success.!Shazia, Rozy and Sabrina - your positive energy made the prep day a bonding experience for the BOS secondary school. I cannot thank our new PTA members enough for taking the lead and asking for biscuits, chips, candy and juice drink sponsorships that enabled us to give each child a wonderfully packed goody bag. You all got together to raise generous funds specically to buy toys and put together such thoughtful combinations of squishy balls, bubbles, whistles, color pencils and stickers into each bag. You also engaged our BOS parent community to volunteer and provide sandwiches and cupcakes for the Mela and the Bake Sale. You put together all the clothes & book donations on prep day, you created incredibly delightful goody bags for the little ones and served yummy treats at the Mela to the Behbud children and kindly helped us set up for the secondary Bake Sale. I am just stunned by your capacity - we are truly lucky to have you all on our PTA -- Mahvash Rahman,!Alia Millwala, Adiba Peshimam, Fatimah Habib, Sadia Mohammed, Ayesha Farooqi, Hira Chaudhry, Mehrnaz Khan, Muneeza Malik -- your enthusiasm is infectious. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to rally us on at every step :)! !Palwasha, Rabia, Sana, Maheen Ahmad, Mrs. Kidwai, Mehwish, Muneerah, Afshan, Ronald, Mariam and Sara - thank you for not only volunteering to participate in the Mela madness but for taking such an active role in making sure our little guests had fun. Whether it was Rabia overseeing all the keen efforts at artwork (or stylizing the student posters on the boards in advance) or Ronald holding whistles in the air as children jumped up for them or Afshan taking the lead in transitioning our guests back and forth from their buses to the gym or Maheen making sure that the sand art bottlemaking was a creative experience, or Mrs. Kidwai supervising the Year 10 students as they offered juices, or Muneerah and Sara helping little ones with food and game practice or Mehwish merrily face painting, or Sana ensuring everyone got their

particular piece of pottery or Mariam bending down to hand coupons to all our guests! -- you were all truly fantastic. We could not have done it without you. (A special note of appreciation to Palwasha for taking on the difcult task of putting names on the goody bags and matching them to the art work created by our little guests. You did an amazing job :) !Thank you to Faiza Hasan for coming in on a Saturday Mela day and to Bushra Ahmad for organizing the mixed chat.!I want to give a special shout out to Mrs. Skelding and Palwasha for their work behind the scenes for the Bake Sale - from creating invites to making pasta cups to golden tickets and more. Aliya thank you for the photography - and form tutors (Naveed, Shazia, Sana and Mehwish) you were phenomenal in your energy and good cheer. I would like to thank the BOS Admin without whom none of this would have been even remotely possible. Individually, I would like to thank Mr. Misbah for handling all the payments details of the sponsorships/bake sale receipts etc with such nesse; I am grateful to Mr. Habib for organizing logistics and! staying in close touch with Behbud to resolve the transport issues as they arose and coming in on Saturday to ensure that they arrived without a hitch; Mr. Saeed and Anthony who oversaw all the party details. Mr. Qaisar provided technical support, and added value to the prep and Mela with your compelling photos of the students in action; and Mr. Rafeeq without all the work that you (and the ancillary staff) did in organizing the gym for both days and the primary hall for the bake sale - we could not have made this event a reality without you - I appreciate your being so responsible and on the ball with everything.!And Mr. Williams - thank you for supporting our endeavors at every step.! Community service really happens when communities come together to serve. My heartfelt thanks to all the BOS parents who supported BOTH our causes in big and little ways - More than ever I have been humbled by the active generosity and engagement that everyone in our BOS community brings. Muchas Gracias! (Zainab Khan, Head of Sixth Form).

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