“Having a natural tendency to possess extraordinary mathematical skills and creative writing / composition abilities, I can say that I passed out through the initial 12 academic years at Beaconhouse School System just fine. Experiencing an emerging profound interest in software development, I took admission at FAST-National University with Computer Science majors. That was the time when I truly ex…plored myself and was amazed to see what I am capable of. As my fingers settled on the fretboard of a guitar, my mouth started practicing debating. Many instruments followed in after the guitar and the thirst to try new instruments stayed alive. Meanwhile, I started developing mobile applications as well, to satisfy my interest in software development. My major learning through the university years was understanding the human behavior; how it effects the masses, how little harmless ignorance leads to utter devastation and how small interactions and human connections can pile up to literally change the walking path of a society. This is where it all started, and Project 50 Kids was born.
In the first semester of my BScs degree, they teach a course regarding basic problem solving and programming. To my amazement, 60-75% of the students were unable to pass the course. This disturbed me. Upon doing some research and consulting the faculty, I reached to a conclusion that this pattern is repeated almost every year, because children from a very young age are taught to ‘memorize’, and not to ‘solve’ or ‘think’. When the education model drastically changes in the university, their minds are unable to cope with it and hence, most of them fail. Consequently, me and some of my classmates formed Project 50 Kids in our 2nd semester which aims to improve the critical thinking, creative thinking and digital literacy in the young students of Pakistan.
Convincing people that Project 50 kids was even possible was a struggle on its own but when I look back now, the solution to all my struggles was solely persistence and dedication. Starting something and sticking to it no matter what, solved most of the riddles for me, and everything worked out in the end.
During the course of my life, there is one major lesson I have learnt and would like to share here: The simplest acts of human connection should not be ignored due to their smallness, because it is these small deeds that often change lives and the course of nations.”
– Abdul Moeez Zahid, Co-founder Project 50 Kids