A boy from a slum school in F-6 sector paints a T-shirt to raise funds for his institution. – Dawn

ISLAMABAD: Unfavourable circumstances had always made it difficult for the open-air school for underprivileged children in Sector F-6 to be run uninterrupted. But that was when the residents of the federal capital had not intervened.

At an exhibition in Gallery6 on Sunday they bought almost 1, 00 T-shirts that the children from the slums had painted to raise nearly Rs100,000 they needed to build a shelter.

With the help of some philanthropists in the city, Master Mohammad Ayub had started developing a shelter in the nearby slums where he voluntarily taught the underprivileged children.

The shelter, however, was still under construction and lack of funds had slowed down the process, considerably.

“All the money generated from the sale of the T-shirts will be used to complete the construction work of the shelter that is being built for the children,” said Kiran Arif who conceived the unique idea to gather the children, get them paint the T-shirts and put them up for sale to raise the much-needed money.

At the one-day exhibition, children had painted stars, trees, houses and splashed red, green and blue paints on white T-shirts to sell 95 of them.

“The T-shirts on sale were painted as a celebration of the Global Day of Service in collaboration with Boston University to organise a fun-filled day for Master Ayub’s students.

“Over a 100 slum children showed up to be part of the event. Along with a host of other activities, the children were provided with painting supplies and white T-shirts,” said Kiran Arif who had studied at Boston University.

The owner of the Gallery6, Dr Faisal Arjumand, pointed out that the painted T-shirts were a testament to the talent and creativity of the children.

“Students displayed their patriotism by painting the crescent and the star, others painted meaningful messages such as ‘Ayub Park School for Hope’ and ‘Education Unites’,” said Dr Arjumand, hoping that the money raised would be a valuable sum to complete the construction of the shelter and give the children a school to call it their own.

Master Ayub had been running the open air school in a park of F-6 sector for the past 27 years.

“Master Ayub has been a constant source of hope and inspiration for the slum dwellers in the area. The money generated is a contribution from Islamabad to help him finish the project he has started,” remarked Kiran Arif.