Islamabad: Knowledge Platform has become the first-ever social impact organization from a Muslim country to win the prestigious Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) funded Grand Challenge award. Out of a pool of over 3,000 innovative applicants from across the world, only 15 were selected to bring their interventions to life.
In partnership with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Knowledge Platform will be launching a sustainability program in Islamabad that will endow students with the 21st-century skills needed to become tomorrow’s leaders. In Knowledge Platform’s cutting-edge “Birds and Bees” program, young learners from across Islamabad will learn to take responsibility for the health and well-being of birds and bees.
While the Gates Foundation’s mission is to reduce inequality, it has thus far only operated in a limited scope within Pakistan, primarily focusing on supporting health services. Knowledge Platform is one of the only organizations in Pakistan to have partnered with BMGF for an education-based intervention. The Birds and Bees program will focus on reducing inequality by making innovative educational techniques, like project-based learning, available to students from all backgrounds.
This initiative is the brainchild of Mahboob Mahmood, the founder of Knowledge Platform, a Singapore-based learning solutions company that has been operating in the Education sector in Pakistan for the past 2 years. Mahboob believes that “Children who grow into leaders are fluent in 21st-century skills that enable them to navigate between books and the social, practical, and creative spheres. Our Birds and Bees program will use 21st-century skills not simply as a means to acquire white-collar jobs, but as a vehicle to creatively solve national and global challenges. We seek to empower our future generation to become carers, doers, and thinkers.”