Celebrating Jashn e Azadi at Save Our Future School

By Web Desk

As 14th of August approaches near each year, it injects into every Pakistani – whether young or old, the love of the country.


While majority of children get a chance to celebrate the Independence Day of Pakistan with much zeal and fervor at their respective schools, there are still many a children in Pakistan who are deprived of this blessing.

The number of out of school children in Pakistan, almost 5.5 million, is one of the highest in the world.Those who are studying in public schools don’t enjoy the benefit of a well-rounded learning experience where academic and extra-curricular go hand in hand.

Save Our Future (SOF) started its endeavors in the areas of education, health and environment in 2010 as a registered Not for Profit Organization.

After facing some difficulties in the initial years of operations and meeting them head on, they are now working aggressively towards providing equal opportunity of education to the marginalized strata of Pakistan.

Additionally, they took a first giant leap in this direction by adopting four Government Girls School last year. The idea is to provide all those educational facilities to these kids that are part and parcel of any private school.

Taking their initiative forward, SOF recently arranged for the children of their adopted schools to celebrate Independence Day with a true patriotic enthusiasm.

Celebrating Jashn e Azadi at Save Our Future SchoolThis Independence Day, the corridors of SOF schools echoed with laughter and cheerful sounds of joy. Every kid in sight wore a smile while celebrating 14th of August with their class mates.

The kids of class 6 to 11 were assembled in the corridor of the first floor of senior section to celebrate ‘jashn-e- azadi’. The event started with the tilawat of Surah-Al-Ikhlaas followed by the recitation of hamd.

The girls were given ribbons, head bands and hand bands of the colours of the flag- green and white- to tie to their hair and arms. Girls being girls, styled the ribbons into their hair, wore the head band as a ‘hair-band’ and the hand band as the bracelet around their wrists and asked their friend’s opinion on ‘how do I look?’

The Balloon competition was one of the key highlights of the day. The eyes of these students sparkled with pure joy at the sight of the balloons and the sound of laughter and hooting swarmed the corridors when a balloon popped.

Celebrating Jashn e Azadi at Save Our Future School

Five girls were selected at random from the audience and were handed a balloon. The candidate who had blown the largest balloon in one minute was declared the winner at the end of the competition.

The pop-questions session that followed turned out to be a bit more challenging for these students. They were asked the questions related to Pakistan and its history to determine how well they know their country. It was a challenge they faced with great knowledge and confidence.

Bursting with joy, these girls sang the national songs of Pakistan whenever they got a chance throughout the ‘jashn-e-azadi’. ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ turned out to be the most popular song among them.

The high level of energy of these students couldn’t be more obvious as they made gestures with their hands every time they shouted Dil Dil Pakistan.

At the end of the jashn-e-azadi event, the national anthem of Pakistan was sung by everyone and three cheers of ‘Pakistan-Zindabad’ were made.

Celebrating Jashn e Azadi at Save Our Future School

To add to the happiness of these school children, the ice-cream treats arranged by the three pillars of SOF, Mr. Agha Alijan, Mr. Fahd Kemal and Ms. Asma Tahir, with the courtesy of Official Sports, Pakistan’s first comprehensive online sports magazine, were distributed among all students.

All in all, it turned out to be a pleasant surprise for the students who had never really had a chance to celebrate an event at their school before.

Having made substantial contribution in the upkeep and improvement of these adopted government schools, SOF plans to adopt many other government schools and eventually start their own school to provide free of cost education to the children of less privileged families.

Written By: Mashal Khatri

The author is an undergraduate student at the Institute of Business Management (I.B.A), Karachi and Volunteer working at SOF as a part of her Social Internship Program.