the walkway school
Founder of The Walkway School- Moazzam Shah Bukhari
The Walkway School (TWS) from Hyderabad, Pakistan, was founded by Moazzam Shah Bukhari, and it aims to serve children from the underserved communities of Hyderabad. The team finds underprivileged “street” children and teaches them the basics of education. These are children who usually beg for a living, are day laborers, etc. They come to TWS and get primary education, and then eventually, when they’re deemed ready, they are enrolled in private or public schools using scholarships. The concept of TWS sounds so simple, right? But you have no idea how impactful this model is. Most of the time, these children are too old to be enrolled in school and start in primary classes, so TWS gets them ready and gives them an excellent educational base so they can begin in age-appropriate classes.
Change Makers of Pakistan covered The Walkway School’s story last summer since then they have achieved tremendous milestones. Nine of their students are now attending private schools, and three of those are on a fully-funded scholarships. Six are sponsored through their donors nationally and internationally. Twelve students are enrolled at public schools as well. The total enrollment of the Walkway School is now at 38 students, and they have facilitated about 100 students, they have also inducted new students into their program. The Walkway School won two awards at the National Level as a Social Enterprise, one at IBA Karachi last year and one at Live Deen Competition the previous month. TWS is growing daily; they have rebranded their vision. They work to strengthen the most vulnerable children of their society by equipping them with educational resources to make them an active participant of their local and national community.
About the Founder
We've told you the story behind The Walkway School, but we wanted to dig deeper and understand the inspiration behind it all. We asked the founder of TWS, Moazzam Shah Bukhari, some more questions to follow his passion and his motivation behind starting this school.
Moazzam was a passionate and involved person; he did everything he could to give back to his community. From serving food at shelters to setting up medical camps to distributing warm clothing to those in need, Moazzam was involved in it all. He never really envisioned himself running a school for street children, but during the times he spent serving others, Moazzam was made aware of his privilege. Something most of us have and take for granted. He quickly realized he was raised with so much love and affection; he was taught basic manners, which he noticed lacking amongst the street children. These children were deprived of the basic human needs. He wanted to contribute and give back to society in a more impactful and sustainable way, so he decided to start The Walkway School.
Our experience
It was genuinely heartwarming to meet the team and these beautiful children of TWS. Do you know what we remember so distinctly about these children? As each student walked into the school, they shook hands with everyone. They may be "street children" or whatever label you want to call them, but for me, they're beautiful well mannered tiny humans. The team at Walkway was terrific. Hyderabad is known for the fantastic Bombay Bakery cake, and the team surprised us with that. Sindh has a very particular print on a shawl and they gifted us those as well. Moazzam, Founder of TWS and Mehrosh, President of TWS, and the entire walkway team are truly gems of human beings. It's people like you them that remind us why we go through so much to cover such stories from Pakistan voluntarily.
Future goals and needs
Future goals for The Walkway School include- turning it into a self-sustainable project and increasing the number of students they facilitate at their school and also the private/public school enrollment. As far as what they need- a better facility to operate from and educate the children and donations to hire professional and full-time staff and teachers to make their operation smoother and also give the children a quality education.
From a park to a building- their story is a beautiful one. Back when they started they had to run after children to get them to class, now the children are already waiting at the door ready to go even before the volunteers get there.
