Company: Alif Laila Book Bus Society, Lahore, Pakistan
Company Description: Set up in 1978, Alif Laila Book Bus Society's basic objective is to evolve solutions to Pakistan's educational problems and within the given socio-economic constraints, find strategically effective paths to 100% literacy and educational modernization for marginalized children through story books, libraries and non formal educational initiatives.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Woman of the Year - Government or Non-Profit
 Nomination Title: Basarat M. Kazim - President
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2020 of the nominated woman, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below:
- Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 200 words used.
Basarat M. Kazim is a selfless & committed humanitarian, educationist, a writer, social activist and die hard advocate of children’s rights. Starting from just 500 students and 1 library to an entire movement with over 7000 libraries, benefitting 3.5 million children and training over 2000 teachers, her efforts and work is extra ordinary and commendable. Since 1978 Basarat has been providing meaningful education in Pakistan to marginalized children, especially girls, from disadvantaged backgrounds. She is responsible for the growth of the AL from a children's library to an entire educational ethos. Over the years she has worked on setting up children’s libraries, mobile libraries, reading corners and early childhood centers in public and private schools. She set up Busti Schools in squatter colonies in Lahore in 1990 and made them into activity based learning spaces. Thirteen of her works are National Book Foundation award winners. In 2009 she received Fatima Jinnah medal from Punjab Government, Freedom through Literacy Grand Prize in 2015 and Library Congress Best Practice Award in 2015. She is currently working passionately on dotting the map of Pakistan with libraries, developing 5 small community schools in the villages of Balochistan & Sindh and empowering young girls.
- Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 248 words used.
Basarat launched a massive mobile libraries campaign post covid in August 2020, because she felt the children of Pakistan needed some joy and hope. This was the time when Basarat realized that children needed books the most, to combat the trauma and uncertainty the virus had brought into their lives. 1017 box libraries were distributed and 17 unique mobile libraries in the form of camels, rickshaw, bicycle, motor-bike, pick-up van, yak were running in the most difficult terrains and urban slums of the country, across 50+ districts & benefitting 160,000+ children.
Over 1000 teachers were trained to carry purpose based activities, where children were engaged in book reading, story-telling, play, art for creative expression, 5-creative habits of mind, puppet shows & mimes to develop literacy and numeracy. A few were provided with solar powered tabs with pre-installed interactive e-lessons and jingles developed by them.
To inculcate love for nature, she wrote 5 new children’s titles in urdu on trees, flowers, leaves, birds and Where are the Children. Another unique intervention was the first mobile makerspace in Pakistan “Projects on the Go”. With the motto: take the joy of learning to children; designed to bring the “wow” of science and technology to government school for girls.
This bus carries the message “Yes, You Can”, encouraging girls to explore, invent, and create. It teaches photography, arts, crafts, electronics, kitchen gardening and digital skills. They also ran audio series and e-lessons on National TV- Tele Taleem with 1 million+ viewers.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 245 words used.
Pakistan is one of the lowest performing countries of the South East Asian region in terms of access to primary education, its quality and the learning outcomes. According to UNESCO Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children (OOSC) with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 not attending school, representing 44 per cent of the total population in this age group. The dropout rate was recorded at a staggering 14% post pandemic because of rising inflation and loss in household income. Basarat’s projects & activities’ prime focus are marginalized children/young girls. For her the success is when, through these initiatives these poor children take back knowledge tingling their interest; when they become independent thinkers & active problem solvers the purpose of ALBBS is fulfilled; whether it brings a smile to read a new book, laugh watching puppet shows, or get ideas for future careers. Our trained teacher have brought attitudinal change in dull classrooms using modern pedagogical methodology & redesigning them into lively spaces We are the pioneers in Pakistan, & have worked with many national and international organizations like UNICEF, Saved the Children, USAID, UNESCO, Open Society Foundations, IsDB etc. IRC who won the library congress award, took help in book selection, design of mobile library and librarian training manual from us in 2013 & replicated our basic model on a larger scale We even set up 75 model cost effect ECE Centers for the government recognized by the World Bank.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 252 words used. If the word count is more than 25 words over the limit, please deduct one (1) point from your score.
Basarat has worked with the same energy & commitment tirelessly to make the children from disadvantaged backgrounds smile, hope & dream big; from setting up libraries, to providing them with hands on skill based learning opportunity, from writing children’s books to developing virtual language lessons, from setting up play/learning spaces in squatter colonies to training teachers on how to deal with children under stress, from providing colorful books in remote/terror stricken localities to taking away sorrow and grief from suffering children through bibliotherapy, from developing manipulative learning aids to conducting puppet shows and holding imaginative storytelling sessions for children; she is still going strong.
-over 1000 teachers trained in creative pedagogies.
- 17 mobile libraries (bicycle, motorbike, bus, van, camel, yak, rickshaw)
- 1000+ box libraries and books distribution
-160,000+ children served
- 50+ districts
-70+ ECE Centres
-National movement across 6 provinces
-Azad Jammu & Kashmir govt. made primary school libraries as part of the policy in 2022
The excel file contains all of our media coverage, ece materials developed, books published.
Letters from partners and people we have worked with
PDF presentation explains our work in pictures.
Bilingual books, teacher trainings and other educational material https://www.aliflaila.org.pk/hoopoe-books
Link to the e-lessons http://digitalmeans.org/
Website link https://www.aliflaila.org.pk/
Annual reports https://www.aliflaila.org.pk/reports
We are the national chapter of IBBY Pakistan
Promotion of Mother Tongue and Book Translation in indigenous languages https://www.aliflaila.org.pk/hoopoe-books
ChangeX : https://www.changex.org/gl/playful-street/pakistan
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