School Outreach Tours

The School Outreach Tours (SOT), the first of their kind in Pakistan, introduced CAP’s ‘Imagination Stations’ to schools across Karachi, exposing students and teachers to the rich history of the country through a series of interactive activities. As part of the project, staff and interns from The Citizens Archive of Pakistan visited 7 schools from July-September 2009 that lie within the lowest tiers of resources and government-funding, in some of the most underdeveloped settlements of Karachi, Pakistan, and conducted two-day workshops designed to get students involved in their history, issues of identity and promote an environment of religious, communal and social tolerance. Our Imagination Stations transported students back in time, where they experienced life in Pakistan during the 1940s and 1950s. Through these school visits, we hoped to initiate a dialogue about Pakistan’s past and present, utilizing the material within our archives (such as photographs, letters, newspapers or official correspondence and hours of Oral History Project interviews) in order to bring history to life for these school children. We have incorporated audio-video clips, photographs, interactive maps, quizzes, 3-D photographs, puppet shows, art activities and cartoons in previous workshops. We provided teachers with Teacher’s Resource Kits, written and photographic material in the hope of promoting discussion in the classroom. Based on positive reinforcement from the pilot project, CAP launched a full scale School Outreach Tour for three years ending 2012. The School Outreach Tours went on to incorporate colleges (COT) in both Karachi & Lahore. On 1st February 2015 The CAP Outreach Tours Program funded by Karachi Youth Initiative was executed with the aim of reaching out to 4500 school and college students. The CAP Outreach Tours were conducted in 2 schools and 5 colleges in Karachi. In July 2019, CAP re-launched the school outreach tours targeting 4 neighborhoods with the aim to educate more than 1000 children in low-income schools across Karachi inculcating critical thinking skills, tolerance and peaceful values, through an appreciation of our history and an understanding of society and history. Our educational methods focus on interactive, hands-on learning and each lesson includes animated videos, games, quizzes and class discussions, which encourage children to question and engage in debate.