ISLAMABAD: A fundraiser ball organized by Developments in Literacy (DIL), a US-based non-profit organization, and sponsored by the diplomatic mission of the UAE, helped raise an undisclosed amount on Saturday evening for more than 27,000 out-of-school children which DIL has taken under its wing in Pakistan, organizers told Arab News.

“Our mission is to make quality education accessible to underserved children in Pakistan… providing low cost education at Rs17,000 per annum,” Sadia Hashir, DIL’s Chief Operating Officer told Arab News on Saturday, adding that she was ecstatic that participants had donated “beyond the organization’s expectations.”

The participants included the crème de la crème of Pakistani society who joined hands for the cause.

According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Pakistan ranks at number two in the list of countries with the maximum number of out-of-school children – an estimated 22.8 million between the ages of 5 and 16.

Gender-wise, girls tip the balance at being the most disadvantageous in the world body’s estimates.

Founded by Pakistani expatriate, Fiza Hussain, DIL (an acronym for heart) aims to bridge that gap and has established 135 schools across Pakistan for the purpose, educating more than 26,000 children, and impacting 90,000 others through its training programs.

“Unfortunately, the government schools in Pakistan are not providing quality education to the students. We have recently adopted schools from Punjab education which are in a pathetic condition with very low enrollment and very poor results. We are trying to bring libraries and IT labs and improve the education standard at these schools,” Hashir said.

She added that the organization’s “method of teaching seeks to ensure a curriculum that is designed for Pakistan, and the children of Pakistan, and most of it is the government-assigned curriculum” with a focus on teacher training programs “which have yielded strong results.”

The organization aims to expand it’s network and introduce more children to modern means of teaching and technology.

For the purpose, DIL has established 42 digital libraries across its education network and has introduced TEAL (Technology Enabled Active Learning) – a digital learning platform which uses tablets in classrooms.

Helping it in its initiative was the UAE embassy which was the “platinum sponsor” at the event.