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Comments: Words of appreciation and encouragement have come from those who have seen the work carried out by us. Here are a few examples: (I) Dr. Shahid Jameel "I had an opportunity to meet Mr. Nafisul Hasan and to learn about the Sir Syed School. I am most impressed by his effort and the drive that Nafis Sb and his team have shown in pursuing this mission. True to the spirit of the Aligarh Movement, the Sir Syed School has a strong national flavour. It caters to the needs of people who, if left alone, would never send their kids to school. Poverty has no religion and the quest for knowledge should be free from religious divisions. This is what Sir Syed Ahmad Khan practised and this is what the Sir Syed School is trying to achieve. For the muslim students, the school is trying to provide a mixed curriculum of modern and religious education. This is what the community needs. This is something we must support. Are we just going to continue endless discussions on the networks? Or are we going to put our money where our mouths are? At the end of the day, the choice is ours. Each one of us will have to look within and ask ourselves this question." (II) Jawaid Iqbal (Jawaid Badayuni)
Dear Aligs, ASAK It
was a dream-cum-true for me to meet Nafisul Hasan in Dehradun
recently, during my annual trip to India. Nafis Sahab is a young
Aligarian who believes more in practicing than preaching. I also got
an opportunity to visit the Sir Syed Public School(SSPS), founded
and managed by none other than Nafisul Hasan. This esteemed
institution, which is small in size but quite large in its values,
gives modern education to poorest amongst poor students who are
normally the children of illiterate daily wageworkers. But for the
efforts of this young Aligarian, the poor students in this school
numbering more than 100 could not even dream of getting education in
an English medium school. On
going through the school fee records, I observed that almost 75 of
the students had not paid their dues. Mr. Hasan informed me that not
only he waives school fee in favour of such needy children, the
school also donates stationery, books and dresses to them. In fact,
I was asked to distribute books and dresses to several needy
students on behalf of the school by my own hands, which was a
pleasure for me of a great multitude. Mr. Nafis showed me the
annual statements of account, which were duly signed by a qualified
auditor. I visited classes from nursery to class 5, which were well
demarcated, and in separate rooms. The children who were
communicating to me in English with refined manners impressed me a
lot. Hats
off to Nafisul Hasan for making such a sincere effort, which is a
right step towards the noble mission of our beloved Sir Syed who
sacrificed for others everything he owned. Education not only helps
improving standard of life, it also improves the level of thinking
and creates a great desire to excel in life. Giving education to
more than 100 children means educating equal number of generations,
for an educated father would never like his children to remain
uneducated. Those who got education in SSPS would teach their
children and their children will do the same and so on. Kudos to the
lady principal and other teaching staff who are willingly rendering
their valuable services at a minimum salary in order to participate
in this good cause. Fee
plays a major role in running such schools, which the majority of
students cannot afford in SSPS. One can understand the financial
difficulties coming in the path of management. I was a bit surprised
to know that some non-aligs as well as non-Muslims have been playing
a greater role than Aligs in bailing the management of this
institution out of the tight financial situation. I can’t see why
Aligs should stay behind in co-operating with someone who has taken
a step towards Sir Syed’s mission. I pray to all Alig brothers and
sisters to participate in this great work and I am sure Allah, the
powerful and the merciful, will give them Jaza-e Khair even for the
smallest contribution. Those interested may e-mail at:nafisulhasan@sancharnet.in
or may visit at: With
best wishes and kind regards, Jawaid
Budauni Muscat (Oman),Camp:
Budaun (India)
(III) Anisur Rahman "It is about 4 Ms, not 3 Ms that i have heard during my academics. I was interacting with this gentleman regarding one of his several missions that he has undertaken. After a brief interaction on this very forum, I understood, that the man I was interacting with is a pragmatist................. ...The Miracle : The miracle that I saw is a school run by SPEECH at Dehradun. I happened to see some photographs and was delighted, when I saw innocent faces with ray of hope. These innocent young ones are our true future and if we cannot take care of our future, we are a doomed nation. It is a composite mix of affordable class, poor and the orphans who need our support. Just by adopting a child each, we can build our future. A cheap bargain indeed. There is a great potential indeed. I can envision that if we all provide the support that it needs, it can match MAO... The tragedy with MAO ... AMU is that it is now restricted to a single entity - whereas what we need is a network of such institutions through the length and breadth of our vast nation. The model of SPEECH would fulfil this. I pray for this man, and his endeavours and ourselves. May the Almighty grant him/us endurance, perseverance, success in this mission, this world and hereafter - Ameen." (IV) Azeem Khan "An act is worth million words" let me share with something during my latest visit to Dehradun with my other 10 classmates.After offering Namaz at one of the mosque, my sight was caught by school board on a wall 'Sir Syed Public School' We were at once attracted to visit the school (It was a magnetic effect and we felt it for the first time), when enquired we came to know that the school was being run by a society named SPEECH we came to know that most of the children studying there belong to the families of that part of our society that cannot even afford a pencil to them, the expenses were borne by some of our fellow aligs through a process of 'adoption', I personally talked to the teachers, they said 'surprisingly children have showed, performance beyond imagination, many have got percentages like 80% and close'.. Just imagine what would have happened if they were not taught they were surely have gone wasted, and the man behind all this is no other but o! One of our senior Alig. Mr. Nafisul Hasan is behind this movement, no one knows as any one of the children of this school will become an IAS or what.. Mr. Nafisul Hasan is an executive in a public sector and his efforts are a source of inspiration to me and my classmates, and I'm sure to many of those who share the same spirit Mr. Hasan told me that 'just contributing financially is not important, what is important is to carry on the dreams of Sir Syed, and turn them into a beautiful reality'. (V) Nadeem Khan "Dear Aligs Assalam, The seed that was once sown by the noble soul Sir Sayyed had now grown up into tree (AMU) and is now giving its shadow to many more who genuinely need the support. As we need to impart the modern education to the poor & needy children of our society, a work in this direction has been initiated by one of our senior aligs Mr. Nafisul Hasan with the well wishes of all of you all in the form of a school named Sir Syed Public School for the poor children of the society which I have visited to which your kind help & support is required." (VI) To:
thegoodindians@yahoogroups.com CC:
arkhan61@hotmail.com From:"
Abdul Rasheed Khan" <arkhan61@hotmail.com> Date:
Wed, 1 Aug 2007 11:33:35 -0400 Subject:
[thegoodindians] A Good Cause ASAK, About 3 weeks back while vacationing in
India, I had a chance to visit one of the Good Indians in Dehradun,
Nafisul Hasan. First of all I have no words to
appreciate the dedication of both Nafis and his wife as to the efforts
they are putting to provide a good basic education to those children
who otherwise have no hope of getting educated. Nafis is running a school in Dehradun, by
the name Sir Syed Public School. This school is catering to
educational needs of financially- challenged families in the area.
These parents are interested in getting their children educated with
modern education, but are unable to pay for the higher fees as asked
by schools in general who impart such type of education. Therefore some students are subsidized
by the school itself and some are financed privately by adopting. The
point to note here is that he is not getting any money from
government, and so far Mr. Nafis has managed to raise the required
money from private sources or from some philanthropic organizations. I myself was introduced to Nafis through
internet and by seeing his writings and also through Prof. Khursheed
Ahmad, based in Hamilton. I reached after 2 PM on Saturday, hence
I could not meet the students, especially those three whom we are
sponsoring from Canada. But what I saw was very impressive. The school building was very clean and in
spite of Saturday evening I saw everything in place and put together
in neat manner. This gave the impression about the love and dedication
they have for the school. To me it looked that everybody is
contributing his best to the school. It could be teacher or assisting
staff or the patrons. The records are being kept up to date and
anybody can see them. I
was with Nafis for full half day. I also had a chance to visit a poor
Muslim locality of Dehradun. It would not be right to call it a
slum as the cleanliness was more than my base in India. I had a chance
to meet few recipients of the sewing machines which were distributed
through Your’s and Nafis’s initiative, through micro-financing,
some time back. Nafis has kept a good record of it and I saw 25% of
them have started giving back the instalments. I would say if 70% of
the recipients return the money it would be a great success. I am of opinion that those who are
looking for giving back to community but are held back because they
are not sure as where their money will be going, should support him by
adopting more children or by donations. I myself will increase my
sponsorships as soon as I can. Nafis encourages everybody who can make
to Dehradun and surroundings, to pay a visit and can have a first hand
look of the establishment. Rasheed Khan (VII) To: thegoodindians@yahoogroups.com From:"Razi Raziuddin" <razi24@hotmail.com> Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:32:01 -0000 Subject: [thegoodindians] Re: A Good Cause Rasheed Khan saheb & ASAK all, I have already requested him to come
forward with his "Phase-Two"
plan for more deserving candidates for 'micro-financing'. (VIII) Date: 01 Apr
2007 22:33:52 -0700 To:AMUNetwork@yahoogroups.com
From: "Khursheed
Ahmed" <ahmed@mcmaster.ca> Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007 09:32:03
-0400 Subject: [AMUNetwork]
A visit to Sir Syed Public School, Dehradun A visit to Sir Syed Public
School, Dehradun Four
years ago, when my brother Syed Saeed Ahmed passed away suddenly from
a heart-attack, we decided to start a scholarship in his memory at Sir
Syed Public School (SSPS) in Dehradun based on positive reports about
the school from my own relatives and other Aligs who had visited this
school. In
March 2007, my wife Maroussia and I visited the school to see how the
school was functioning and how effective is the education being
provided to the children supported by the scholarship in Saeed’s
name- “Saeed Ahmed Memorial Scholarship”. SSPS
is run by Mr. Nafisul Hasan a senior executive in an organization of
repute and his wife Mrs. Rafat Hasan (MA). It focuses on
providing modern education up to primary level to the children
from modest backgrounds. The school has been inspired
by the work of the great Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. The
school was originally planned to Grade V, but some of its graduates
had no other educational opportunities, so Nafis and Rafat decided to
extend it and added extra years - it is now grown to Grade VIII.
We
stayed in the school for about three hours, interacted with its
students in different classes and were pleased to see that
the students are getting a broad-based education which includes
English, Urdu, and Hindi as well as Arabic. Subjects such as
geography, science, and computer training figure prominently on the
quality syllabus which is fully approved by the government.
The children demonstrated good reading and writing fluency in both
English and other languages expected for their level. The teachers
we met were appropriately qualified, very dedicated and very
professional. The
hygienic conditions and the discipline were remarkable. Health
education and enhancement of self-esteem are woven into daily
teaching. While seeing the records of the school such as students
weekly performance register, fee register and the scholarships detail,
we observed that the fee was due on several students whose
parents had actually agreed to pay. Thus, the school is subsidizing
education for those who can't pay in full. We were impressed to
see that they keep accurate records on each student’s progress as
well as how money is managed. Mr.
Nafisul Hasan indicated how difficult it is to bring education to
families who do not have any tradition of education in their homes and
often see it as a luxury whose rewards are not immediate.
Financial pressures make it harder for children to learn, because
their parents would rather have them earn and help the family. Creating
the motivation for education and demonstrating its long-term benefits
is a major objective for the school staff in spite of the obstacles
they encounter. However, some of the children are doing
extremely well and the foundation of primary education will uplift
them to a more fulfilling life in the future. We
were both very pleased and grateful for the dedication of Mr. and Mrs.
Hasan and all the staff for the remarkable work they are doing to
bring education to these under-privileged children. We are also
very grateful that a few students are being inspired to work hard and
achieve academic excellence and keep the memory of our dear brother
Saeed alive. We had the opportunity to assess for ourselves first hand
and without prior notification the quality of education and the
dedication of the founders and staff of Sir Syed Public School .
We looked closely at the accounting books, and we left impressed
and fully satisfied that our contributions are very well utilized.
We consider any attempt at discrediting the effectiveness
of the school as baseless, disappointing and counter-productive.
Mr.
Nafisul Hasan said that he would welcome anyone genuinely interested
in the improvement of the school to visit his school and see things
for themselves as well. The
website for SSPS is: http://www.geocitie
s.com/speech_ in/activities. html Khursheed
Ahmed [Khursheed
Ahmed, MSc (Alig. 66), PhD (McGill 71) is retired from the Faculty of
Health Sciences at McMaster University . Maroussia Ahmed, PhD (
Paris Sorbonne) is a Professor of French at McMaster University , Hamilton
, Canada
"People may not believe what you say. They will certainly believe what you do."
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