Mashal Trust was established in April 2010 to provide education for those in need and particularly for underprivileged children. We are a non-political, non-sectarian and non-governmental charity organisation.

Our philosophy can be summed up in one word: Humanism. Serving humanity – irrespective of colour, race, language, nationality, gender, sect or religion – is something we follow passionately. We aim to provide education to create awareness hence eradicating human suffering, poverty and disease within every afflicted community. Unfortunately in the areas where we work, there are no suitable education facilities available for children as only expensive private institutions provide education that is affordable to a few households. These underprivileged children usually end up in bad company in the young age and also remain illiterate. Few of them fall into the hands of criminals as their parents are busy earning their livelihood. Talking to their parents it was realised that they cannot afford education and moreover do not understand the importance of it either.

We have set up the first school as initial pilot project in a rented accommodation in Tariq Block, Garden Town, Lahore in April 2010. Response was over whelming and it attracted a large number of children for admission on the first day.

It has been 9 and a half years now since the school has started. there are approx 140 students now. Free education, books, school uniform and recreation is provided to all the children attending the school. The trustees are all volunteers and work without any salary and remuneration that helps us keep the costs down.

The new premises were bought with a single generous donation of £ 72,000 and on top of that donations were made to upgrade the building and for repairs and paintwork. Having our own place has helped us start full time primary school and secondary classes up until  Grade 8/Year 8.  There still remains a huge demand for expansion as we constantly have children coming for admission but politely we have to refuse because we can’t increase the class numbers as that will affect the standard of teaching and we don’t want to compromise on that aspect.

We have started our second school in Hajjiabad, Mansehra in 2017.  This school is for girls for Grade 6/Year 6 and upward. There are approx 100 students there. We have a good team of volunteers to uptake this project. The building was generously donated by a well wisher from the local community. We have appointed teachers from local area hence giving them an opportunity to work in their own village. There is also a class for adult learning in which women from the village come to learn basic reading and writing. We also provide nursery for their young children at the premises.

We also run sewing school there. The ladies are also learning the art of embroidery and cutting and sewing different types of dresses.