These men and women mostly farmers of small holdings, and a few who work as peons or chowkidars in the city, have overcome one of their greatest disabilities  illiteracy. And by the end of this year, thousands more men and women, from the same areas will be literate, thanks to the Adult Basic Education Society (ABES) and the organization’s simple but unique methods of imparting literacy.

ABES has been the leading non-governmental organization in this field since it became indented from the Presbyterian Church in 1970. Covering the districts of Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Jhelum, and Lahore approximately 25,000 square kilometers - ABES has helped over 300,000 adults to become literate direct through its projects, and an estimated one million more have benefited from the organization’s methodology adopted by other agencies.

Last year, the Ministry of education launched the Islamabad Literacy Project (ILP) with the aim creating literacy in the district. ABES was chosen as the implementing agency for the rural areas and was allocated 5 union councils - Tumair, Chirah, Kirpa, Kuri and Rawat. Vincent David, director of ABES, along with his small team of 3 motivators, moved from the organization’s headquarters in Gujranwala to Rawalpindi.

In the first phase, a target of 536 literacy centres was set. By June1992, 248 were functioning. This number later decreased to 238 centres a decrease caused by high male dropout rate of 50-68 percent.

The first step in establishing projects in any area involves village leaders, local politicians, and maulvees. It is they who initially have to be convinced of the benefits of bringing education to their communities. Every aspect of the ABES project is explained to them, including the course and who is financing it. Once these local leaders have agreed to the proposal put forward, the second stage of the project begins.

A local committee is formed and the members are asked to prepare a list of target areas, sites where the classes might be held and a list of teachers from the community to be trained by ABES.

"Teachers always come from the community" explains Vincent David, "Initially, these men and women might not be up to the mark academically, but with training they are able to contribute much more than a qualified person coming from outside who would have to be ‘detrained." The local person is going to stay there. He or she knows the needs of the community and is also familiar to the students. The brings a permanence to the whole project."

An ABES technician interviews the teachers proposed by the local committee and in the third stage, those selected attend a 10-day intensive training course. "Everything is explained to them before they come," says David. "We tell them that they may face many problems, that they will only be paid an honorarium and not a full salary. Before they start, they must be clear about everything." All the teachers have to find their own way to the training course each day. They must be regular they are dropped from the course if absent for a full three days. And during the 10-day period, they are expected to begin enrolling students. "From the beginning, we teach them how to motivate," says Vincent David. "Every evening they go back to their homes and look for students. After the course we give then a week, sometimes 15 days, for further motivation and enrollment, for collecting material and receiving teaching aids from us. It is a period of final preparation."

During those fifteen days, ABES selects local supervisors from the teachers who then attend another training course. The usual practice is for one supervisor to cover 7 centres.
But in the Islamabad district, where there are more classes in one village and hence less logistical problems, one supervisor cover 10 centres. "It is imperative," explains David , "that the supervisor stick to the same villages. The students get to know their superior, and benign to trust him or her. They don’t like change. It disturbs them and upsets the smooth running of a class."

In working experience spanning 21 years - and 25,000 square kilometers - ABES has found women to be far more interested and devoted to learning than men. In just one union council, like Tumair, there are up to up to 6 villages, 40 centres and a total of 488 students. Thirty two of these centres are for women and only eight for men. And considering the figures of the first phase of the ILP, it is evident that the women are, indeed, more motivated and convinced of the benefits of education.

Out of the total 211 female centres in five union councils at the beginning of ILP ,194 were still functioning at the end of the six month course. Of  the 73 male classes, only 33 remained at the end of the same period.

"Women are more interested," confirms the ABES director, "basically for five reasons. Firstly, as children they were not given the chance, and so when offers an opportunity later, they are eager to avail it. Socially, they like together. A classroom studying.

It is about discussion - of local or family problems. Thirdly, because of the mass media, they are self-motivated. They may see something on television for instance, and want to know more. Fourth, they are usually better than men at organizing their everyday liver and they realize that this will help them and their everyday lives and they realize that this will help them and their families."

The ABES methodology is perhaps the secret of the organization’s success. Work began with the development of primers with a 1200-word list for which assistance was sought from word experts and linguists. Using 53 words from the list, Vincent developed a primer which has proved extraordinarily successful, primarily because it is aimed at the adult. "We don’t start with the alphabet," he explains. "The adults is interested in words and that is what we concentrate on from the start. The alphabet comes with the learning of the syllables."

In the first half of the primer, there are three words per page, along with relevant pictures. In the second half, sentences and passages are constructed from the words learned in the first half. "Here I have included practical information," explains David. "For example, news items, a letter, a receipt, information about Islam, about Pakistan and our leaders like Allama Iqbal. There is information about hygiene, health, nutrition and cleanliness. All these lessons are very short and simple - for the newly literate. When I worked on this primer, I decided that we just needed one, many groups and meet the needed one, through which we could target many groups and meet the needs and interests of urban and rural students, agriculturists, industrialists, the very poor and the less poor."
 
It takes about 60 days for a student to complete the first primer. In second, third and
fourth stages of the course, more advance books are provided. These new words and passages on subjects ranging from economical meals, the home, sanitation, clean, childcare, family planning. Poultry farming, agriculture and drug abuse. A primer on local environmental issues is also being developed in collaboration with IUCN.

"We never tell a student that he or she has failed," says Vincent David, " In the first primer stage, we use flash cards and charts for revision. In the advanced classes, if a student has difficulty with one book, we provide another."

ABES has produced a 100 books on various subjects, for six grades. These are published by Nirali Kitaben, based at ABES’s Lahore office. As the name suggests, this is the only publisher of its kind in Pakistan. Through the sale of its primers and teaching manuals to other agencies last year, Nirali Kitaben made a staggering Rs. 500,000.
The fifth and sixth stages include follow-up courses. With the ILP, Vincent David is still trying to convince the government of the need for library boxes for the villages and he hopes that if a group of new literates approach him for a particular follow-up course, say in health, his organization will have the funds to provide this.

"We have had some very successful follow-up courses," he says, "Last year, in village Ghatiyalian in Sailkot, a group of students said they wanted a follow-up course in traditional birth attendant training. We conducted this on demand, and although it began with only a few students, the numbers swelled because it attracted the attention of other villages."

In total, ABES has run 55 follow-up courses: 30 in Sailkot 20 in Gujrat and 5 in Gujranwala. It has also set up  experimental classes in villages in Lahore district under its Health Education and Adult Literacy (HEAL) program, women learn to read about health-related subjects with a  specially produced primer.

In Maliwal village, comprising mostly fishermen, the HEAL team has successfully experimented with the use of emerges. Women are asked to discuss any health problem faced by their family, and then asked to draw a picture telling the story. Using the pictures, they discuss why the illness occurred and why the woman, or child did not recover, focusing on hygiene or polluted drinking water. A new sequence of picture is then drawn with a positive ending, and these images are developed into story cards by the HEAL production unit. Each women receives her own copy which she can take home with her. In this way the health message is passed on.

ABES targets mostly rural communities. Men who earn no more than Rs. 2000 a month; women, whose main concern is to be able to feed their large families & simple meal of roti, and if lucky, a bowl of daal. Men and women who, without the most basic facilities, struggle to keep themselves and their children alive.

It is surprising then, that initially motivating these people to take time out to study, is not as difficult as one would think. "House to house, person to person is the best way," explains Vincent David, who has had over 30 years’ experience in this field.

"We have to ask the men first if they will allow their women to study. We explain exactly what will be taught and how they sill benefit from education. With an honest, straight-forward talk 80-85 percent are convinced."

It is equally important to approach the maulvees in the really stages. If approached, they usually cooperate and, at Friday prayers, encourage villagers to attend classes. If ignored then, they tend to create problems by spreading the word that the classes are a bad thing will corrupt the women.

"Once in Gujrat," he recalls, "we didn’t meet the religious leader. We were ready to launch the project when, in the Juma (Friday) prayers, the local maulvee suddenly announced that a Christian (meaning me!) was coming to try and convert the villagers. He warned them to stay away from me!"

For ABES, the main problem has not been working with the local people. The organization’s main concern is finances. Funded by as wide a fanged of donors as the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Bread for the world, Canadian Organization for Development in Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and EZE, a German donor, Vincent David has over the years, however, felt that international donor agencies are becoming more apprehensive about financing development programs in Pakistan. "Donor agencies usually pay for only one project at a time. We have lost some good personnel, people to whom we just couldn’t guarantee permanent work. Moreover, donors contributions rarely cover administrative costs, which means that we often have to forego our salaries."

The cost of projects, salaries and administration is also a concern when the work is being supported by the government, as in the case of the ILP. Halfway through its first phase, Vincent David was told that he would not be able to continue. "It happens so often," he says, "They go half way then give up. But this time I went to the Education Ministry and pleaded with them to let us continue, to see what we could achieve so that we could be a model for further literacy work. Fortunately, they agreed."

Recognition is perhaps less than it should be. Although ABES received two UNESCO awards on International Literacy Day, in 1984 and 1991, Vincent David’s team suffered a blow on the certificate presentation ceremony held recently in Islamabad. "There were so many press men there," David says, " but the next day there was only a tiny write-up in an Urdu newspaper. All it mentioned was the education minister’s speech, along with his picture. Nothing else, nothing at all about ABES. My workers were so disheartened. They asked me if it was because we were Christians. I didn’t know what to say to them. If that is the case then it’s ironic, because all the literacy certres in Islamabad are for Muslims, all the teachers are Muslims and all the supervisors are Muslim. Nationwide, only 2 percent of our projects are for Christians."

By 1959, he had a staff of 22, mostly daily wage earners. One day, there was a mix up in the account books involving the payment of one his daily wage earners who had received payment for days he had worked. He called the man replied, "We blind people, what do we know what is written there?"

Vincent David was deeply affected by this incident. "This isn’t just one blind man, I though. There are thousands , millions." They weren’t beautiful signatures, but they were signatures, and it was a men holding a pen in their hands."

That is how Vincent David entered the field of literacy. A Presbyterian, he was eventually persuaded by a foreign missionary to join the Presbyterian Mission, much to the chagrin of his parents. "I was doing well in my business. So when I went to Sailkot, they were really unhappy. How would I support my brothers, and sisters education on a paltry Rs. 300?"

Initially, he was frustrated by the way the mission operated. Working with local Christians, it would only teach them to read the Gospels. "There was no proper teaching method. And the programs weren’t in any way connected to people’s daily lives."

Eventually, he spread the mission’s work to areas in Sialkot , Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Faisalabad, cycling from district. During the same period, with the help of another foreign missionary, he worked on a survey to discover the needs of the people and obtain guidelines to develop materials.

By 1970, the church agreed to form an autonomous board and in 1972, the Adult Basic Education Society became a registered NGO. At last, Vincent David had the chance to make the organization not only inter-denominational but inter-religious. He developed the primer which has proved so successful, and a teaching method which was recognized by the Bhutto government, and which resulted in twice daily adult literacy programs televised by Pakistan Television (PTV). "Aslam Azhar was Managing Director then," he recalls with affection. "Initially, I was appointed advisor, script writer and producer. But we couldn’t find anyone who was able to teach the method well on screen. Eventually, I ended up doing it. "His stint with television lasted from 1972 until 1978.

But the change in government greatly affected Vincent David’s work. There were many changes, especially in the mass media. They didn’t like it because I was Christian. They asked me to change my name. I refused. Then they stopped giving me credit at the end of the programs. Eventually, I resigned."

PTV continue showing his recorded programs over and over again, without  giving David credit, until 1981. Meanwhile, he had returned full-time to ABES. But his belief that the television screen allowed him to reach so many more people, forced him to borrow money with which he managed to produce literacy programs on video. These were used in many of the ABES projects. Last year, he returned to the television screen, but this time on STN.

Did he ever regret giving up his business? "Yes, twice," recalls.

"The first time, many years ago, when I joined the mission. The parents of the girl I was to marry broke the engagement because I had left my business. Naturally, it made me think about what I was doing. The second time was when I resigned from PTV. ABES wasn’t really enough for me. But each time I though about giving the whole thing up, something happened, some new spirit of energy, and the affection of so many people who had learned to read because of my work."