© Living Hope Project. Registered Charity in England & Wales (1157086)
In 2010 I was sent to Queens College Birmingham to train to be a Methodist Minister. Queens College affirmed my vision and supported this project. Many great people from Queens College and their churches became a part of this vision and started raising money for the project.
While at Queens we organised many events such as an art exhibition displaying and selling Rev. David Hollingsworth and the work of other to raise money for the project. We received a very good response and the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Anita Ward, was our special guest.
Soon we were able to raise enough money to buy some land for the school. But we still had a long way to go.
The vision of the Living Hope project began to germinate in Imran in Karachi in 2000. Whilst he was living in Karachi he used to give Tuition to the children of low income families in order to support his own studies. Many of these children were not attending school because their parents could not afford the fees, and so the children worked alongside their parents in low income jobs. At the end of a long days work, all their education was crammed into an hours session. Often the children would struggle to concentrate, or fall asleep mid session. More often than not the parents would be unable to afford the small sum that Imran needed to be able to perform this work.
Despite every effort, the future of these children was a dim one.
However, in 2005 Imran moved to the UK, and in 2007, went to Cliff College to study Theology. At Cliff College, he met many wonderful people like Paul Rees, who sadly passed away.
“There at the college, I started to share my vision for the school for underprivileged children in Pakistan where children can go to get free education, instead of working long hours. Paul and I continued to pray for this vision.
In 2009 Rev Dr David Martin Whitworth who was a PhD student from Grayson, Georgia started to give us lectures on missiology. For his last session, he asked all the students to prepare a presentation about how they would reach out for God. When the day came for our presentation, Paul and I were in the same group and Paul wanted to go first. When he stood up he started talking about how my vision to build a school for underprivileged children in Pakistan, inspired him. After his presentation, I did not have anything left to say. All I could see was a big smile on Paul’s face saying perhaps it was the right time to start working on this vision to turn it into a reality. With the help of David Whitworth, we did some groundwork and started raising money for this project. Many wonderful people started praying and supporting this project, which set the foundations."
In 2012 I was sent serve two Methodist Churches in London, the Blackheath and Crystal Palace Circuit, and gathered impressive support for the project. By the end of 2013 we had enough money to start building the school.
It took us a few years to get where we are now. The School now have 5 class rooms and a computer room. There are over 80 students receiving life changing education. We have 6 teachers, an adminstrator and a caretaker.
We need to continue to raise money to continue to finace the running of the school, teachers salaries, stationery and books for the childer.
There are yet other children to be given a better chance in life. Patner with us to re-write a child's future.
Thank you:-)
