What is OLSS?

Outliers Secondary School is located in the village of Minawar in the remote north of Pakistan. This girls’ school focuses on high school education and preparation for the college.

What is the vision of OLSS?

To empower girls and young women through equal access to education in a village where there are no higher education opportunities.

When and how was OLSS founded?

Founded in 2010 with significant financial support from Helen Nam from the USA. Helen is the founder and main donor of this school. Together with two brothers, Raji Ahmed, the co-founder (a tour guide by profession) and Mumtaz Alam (a government official), they set up the school. It was later expanded. Mumtaz Alam continues to oversee the running of the school, while Raji Ahmed is fundraiser for various projects alongside the school.

Why OLSS

In 2008, American Helen Nam was travelling through Gilgit Baltistan, the northern region of Pakistan, as a backpacker. She met Raji Ahmed, a tour guide from the city of Gilgit. They decided to hike to the Fairy Meadows at the foot of Nanga Parbat (8126m). Nanga Parbat is a mountain in the western Himalayas of Gilgit Baltistan in Pakistan, which they are climbing together with some other hikers.

After returning from the hike, Helen visited Minawar at Raji’s invitation, together with some other visitors from South Korea and Germany. Discussions began about the local culture, traditions, the role of women in the village and the literacy of women in the northern areas of North Pakistan. Helen was shocked to learn that the girls of Minawar receive no basic education, while the boys have access to at least middle school.

Helen returned to the United States and visited Pakistan again in 2010, when Raji and Helen visited some villages in the suburbs of Gilgit to collect data on female literacy rates. Helen visited the village of Minawar, where she found that girls’ education was severely neglected compared to the other villages she visited.

Going to the next level; to actually found a school

Raji introduces his brother Mumtaz Alam, an ambitious and dedicated person. Mumtaz, who has experience in teaching and school administration, takes the lead in completing the legal formalities and gets people in the village to co-operate. Eventually, some of his friends joined in and the team grew stronger and stronger. Together, the group managed to break the stereotype that excluded girls from primary education and this eventually led to the founding of OLSS.

How far we have come

In the early days, when we had limited financial resources, we were initially given permission to use a vacant school building. This school was a government primary school, which we gradually expanded from grade 5 to grade 6 and then grade 7.

From a humble beginning, we then expanded it into a secondary school with minimal facilities in 2016. In addition to the classrooms, a small library, a science lab and a staff room were built as we wanted to ensure that the school had the basic requirements.