Mirpur AKAB school educates 150 visually impaired children
Prof Mohammad Ilyas Ayub, who studied at a school for blind children in Lahore, founded Mirpur's AKAB School, which now gives 150 pupils free education, hostel and training.
AKAB School for the Blind, on a 100-kanal campus outside Mirpur in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, has 150 boys and girls on its rolls, including 50 day scholars.
Education, hostel, food, transport, technology and training are free, with much of the cost met by philanthropists and the Pakistani and Kashmiri diaspora.
The school has taught more than 300 children since it began with one teacher and one student about two and a half decades ago.
Founder Prof Mohammad Ilyas Ayub, 56, studied at a school for visually impaired children in Lahore and co-founded AKAB in 1994 with Tariq Awan.
AJK BISE announced a 100 percent 9th-grade result last month, and the national blind men's cricket team has an AKAB link through its captain, head coach and three core players.