Government Primary School, Lucklines was started in 1955. The school building consisted of two main rooms and three small rooms. One passage was converted into an additional room to accommodate the children. The school is located in a posh locality of Lahore but unlike its name, the lady luck did not seem to have noticed its terrible plight.

Rotary Club of Lahore Garrison (RCLG) adopted the school in 1998. At that time, roofs of this 117 years old school building, constructed in 1885, were crumbling, leaking and had become dangerous for the school children who belonged to poor socio-economic group. The roof was supported by wooden logs, which had been eaten by termites. Enrollment had dropped to less than 150 children. Due to lack of repair of the building, children were taught mostly in the open in inclement weather and had to sit on the floor since no furniture was available. There were only two toilets in the whole school, which were also non-operational. The playground facilities were non-existent. The installed swings had become non-operational. The vast lawn gave the appearance of ruins, with a very large fallen tree surrounded by growth of wild grass on one side of the lawn. After the adoption, our club started a close liaison with the school teachers and the School Management Committee (SMC), consisting of members from the community. One of our Club members, Rtn. Shehzad Ahmed, became member of the SMC. Some of the activities carried out by RCLG were:

· Polio Immunization Camps from 1998 Onwards
· Meetings in the School with the Community from 1998 Onwards
· Tree Plantation from 1999 Onwards
· Provided Sports Equipment in 1999
· Parents Day Function on December 18, 1999
· Provided Clothes and Sweaters on December 18, 1999
· Annual Prize Distribution on April 1, 2000
· Regular visits of District Governors and other Rotary officials
· A Rotary Community Corps (RCC) was formed
The Club members also decided to prepare a Matching Grant proposal for the school. A proposal was prepared after holding various need-assessment and brainstorming meetings with the school teachers and the SMC. Subsequently, a Matching Grant proposal was prepared and efforts were started to locate an international sponsor. The Club was fortunate to find R.I. District 2430 (Turkey) as the International sponsor with the active help from PDG Suhail Ahmad, and subsequently, the MG proposal was submitted to The Rotary Foundation (TRF) in April 2000.

The project proposed to provide the following:

· Necessary Building Repairs
· Upgradation/addition of Toilet Facilities
· Furniture for students and teachers
· Playground facilities
· Books/Stationery/Teaching Aid Material
· Clothing and Footwear

The Matching Grant (MG # 14842) was approved on February 21, 2001 for an amount of US$ 16,056.00 (Rs. 867,024) and the funds were released on September 8, 2001. The breakup of funding was as follows:

Sr. # Description US$ %
1 RC Lahore Garrison 3,028 19
2 DDF (PDG Suhail Ahmad) 500 3
3 R.I. District 2430, Turkey 4,500 28
4 Total Sponsor's Contribution 8,028 50
5 TRF Contribution 8,028 50
6 Total Project Cost 16,056 100

The Matching Grant project is near completion and is expected to be completed by the middle of July 2002. The present status is as follows:

· Present student strength: 270 + students
· Building repairs have been done
· Toilets: 2 toilets have been repaired/upgraded. 1 new toilet has been added
· Paint of the building: Has been done
· Furniture: Has been provided
· Playground Facilities: Have been provided
· Books: Have been distributed among all students of the school
· Clothing and Footwear: Has been provided

The Club was fortunate to get active support from Al-Madad, another community based organization, working in the school with the same aims and objectives. We have plans to initially upgrade the school to middle (class/grade 8) and later to high school (class/grade 10). In this regard, various meetings have been held with the relevant education authorities. Classes 6 and 7 have already been started with the help from Al-Madad. The new project requires construction of additional rooms, for which a layout drawing has already been approved by the relevant authorities and an estimated Rs. 700,000 are required, for which we seek assistance from the members of the local as well as the business community. Seeing is believing. We invite everyone to visit the school and see how a ruined building has been turned into a lively place. We are confident that after visiting the school, the local community will be motivated to assist us in our fundraising efforts.

Please click at the following link to view the project photographs:

http://www.ofoto.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=693784594789_81106996403&US=0&collid=96380786403

Project 2

MG # 14842: GOVERNMENT PRIMARY SCHOOL LUCKLINES

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