Our Story

An 19-year-old undergraduate student and an aspiring writer, Farah Deeba Akram, used to pen down the lifestyle of people belonging to different strata of the society. One day while walking in the slums and jotting down her observations about life outside the posh areas of Lahore, she gave biscuits to the street children who were constantly looking at her bag. “I don’t need the biscuits”, said one of the street children. “I wish to have a pencil and a copy from your bag”. Farah was greatly moved by the quest for formal education shown by the street children and decided to provide them their basic right to education. Hence, under the shadow of a tree, the Aalam Bibi School had its humble beginning in 2005 when Farah made a routine to go every day in the industrial area of Kot Lakhpat – then notorious for drug addicts and street criminals.

Meanwhile, she rented a small house of almost 4-marla (101 sq. meters) in the same locality and converted that into a school building. She started a door-to- door campaign for the importance of education and enrolled 60 students in the first batch. Initially, the school was run solely by her pocket money and funds donated by her father, Muhammad Akram. Farah was the only teacher and the administrator of the school. Soon, her family and friends joined her in the cause of Aalam Bibi and started volunteering at the school.