Shehzad Roy (as Social Worker)

Introduction

Shehzad Roy is a Pakistani singer, social worker and humanitarian. He started his singing career
in 1995 and has recorded six albums since. He has recorded many hit songs such as "Saali," "Teri
Soorat" and "Kangna," but is most famous for his 2008 socio-political album Qismat Apney
Haath Mein.[1]Roy is also the president and founder of Zindagi Trust, a non-government
charitable organisation, that strives to improve the quality of education available to the average
Pakistani.

Roy has recently produced and hosted 2 documentary series, Chal Parha, about the state of
public education in Pakistan, and Wasu aur Mein, which follows the travels of Shehzad and a
villager and deals with issues like progress, poverty and patriotism in Pakistan.

In 2005, Roy was the recipient of the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, which is one of the highest Civil Honors
awarded in Pakistan for excellence in public service. For his organisation's rehabilitation work
after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, he was awarded the Sitara-e-Eisaar in 2006.[6] He was also
selected to be a torch bearer for the 2008 Olympics.

In 2002, Shehzad established Zindagi Trust, a non-governmental, non-profit organisation that

strives to improve the quality of education available to the average Pakistan.

Paid to Learn

In 2003, the Trust pioneered the concept of I-am-paid-to-learn, a non-profit that offers working
children an alternative to child labour; makes them aware of their rights as children, as workers
and as citizens. With nearly 1800 students in schools across Pakistan, a 2.2-year accelerated
primary education course is taught to the children who spend most of their days working in car-
repair shops & other general stores in Karachi, Lahore & Rawalpindi. The programme also
sponsors the continuing education of top graduates who are encouraged to enroll in mainstream
secondary schools
Public School Reform

A few years after Paid-to-learn was initiated, Shehzad realised that this program was not enough
to educate the masses. Most children of school-going age in Pakistan (over 85%) only have
access to government schools which are plagued with low teacher attendance, dilapidated
buildings, poor facilities, a curriculum and teaching culture that starves creativity and encourages
rote-learning, etc.[39]

The Trust's school reform project at the SMB Fatima Jinnah Government Girls School in Karachi
has involved the following:[39]

Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Development. For a visual description of this effort,

please view the projects "Before and After" picture gallery.

Administrative Changes such as the merging the multiple schools running in one campus
into one school under one administration, maintaining teacher and student records for
attendance, performance, etc., disallowing private use of school grounds, formulating an
admission policy

Academic Innovation and Planning such as the introduction of modern, thought-

provoking textbooks in Urdu, English, Mathematics, teaching a video-based science
curriculum in our well-equipped A/V Room, hiring academic coordinators for English,
Mathematics and Science to plan syllabi with learning outcomes and timelines, design tests,
monitor progress, observe and train teachers

Teacher Reform such as monitoring teacher attendance and evaluating teacher

performance through regular teaching demos, lesson plan reviews as well as in-class
monitoring by academic coordinators throughout the term.

Introduction of new learning modules such as art, chess, sports (netball, basketball,
football, hockey, throwball, taekwondo, rowing, cricket), public speaking, life skills and
abuse awareness
Reform Matric Board campaign

In 2016, Shehzad Roy launched an education campaign to reform the examination boards of
Pakistan. The cornerstone of the campaign was a music video, titled "Sirf Bandhi Hai Kamar",
which depicted a mother transforming into a Kill Bill-type Samurai sword-wielding assassin; a
teacher mutating into the Hulk; a father into a Maula Jutt lookalike and a maulvi into a Kung Fu
fighter! simply on being cross-questioned by someone younger than them. The campaign points
out the flaw in the way children are assessed in Pakistan and calls for reforms in the structure of
the exams to test for application of concepts instead of the traditional focus on knowledge alone.

Awards and Honors

On the occasion of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize to Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan and Kailash
Satyarthi from India, Shehzad performed at a joint Peace concert held on the evening of the
Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony on 10 December 2014 in Oslo, Norway. The concert was attended
by dignitaries like the Royal King family members, Prime Minister of Norway, Former Pakistani
Prime Ministers, Ministers, Members of the National Parliament and the Norwegian elite in the
fields of knowledge and culture, along with Norwegian Pakistanis and Indians.

In April, 2013, Shehzad was invited to Harvard University to talk about music, activism and his
documentary series, Chal Parha, in which the audience learnt about Roys journey to over 200
schools across Pakistan and the lessons learnt from this journey. Additionally, the viewers were
educated about ways in which art and artists have struggled to bring social change throughout
Pakistans history.

In May 2013, Shehzad Roy performed in Rome on invitation from Pakistans Ambassador to
Italy. The Pakistan Embassy in Rome in collaboration with Ztema Progetto Cultura, an agency
of Romes Municipality, organised the concert in Villa Borghese, the second largest public park
in Rome, and was part of La Notte dei Musei (The Night of Museums). The solo show presented
Pakistans rich heritage; especially its music and poetry, to the Italian audience.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs awarded the 2009 Patricia Blunt Koldyke Fellowship on
Social Entrepreneurship to Shehzad Roy to recognize his commitment to providing better
learning opportunities in government-run schools, and honor his goal of encouraging Pakistan's
youth "to value education and provide them with the knowledge and opportunities they need to
realize a peaceful, democratic political future." As a Koldyke Fellow, Roy spent one week in
Chicago exchanging ideas about education, philanthropy and nonprofit management with the
city's civic, government, business and academic leaders. He delivered a major public address
about education in Pakistan to a Chicago Council audience the evening of 29 Oct. 2009.