From Karachi to Kilimanjaro
A Climb for 30 Million Futures
Zahed Khan and Huzaifah Simjee are climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in mid December for one reason: Pakistan now has over 30 million out-of-school children — the largest number in the world. They refuse to accept that as normal. This isn’t adventure. It isn’t a photo-op. It’s a mission.
For Zahed, the climb has been decades in the making. As a teenager in Karachi, he read Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro and quietly promised himself he’d stand on that mountain someday. The dream never left him. It just needed a purpose. Jugnuu has given him one.
Train Hard, Climb Easy And Learn What’s Possible
According to Adam Grant in his book Hidden Potential, “What any person in the world can learn, almost all can learn if given the right conditions.”
That line captures exactly why Jugnuu exists. Only 8.5% of Pakistanis ever earn a university degree. If our future depends on higher education alone, most of the country will be shut out of it. The system pushes memorization over thinking. Obedience over curiosity. Degrees over real skills. A prominent physicist in Pakistan, Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, says the university system creates “customers,” not learners.
Why Skills Matter More Than Ever
Jugnuu is the quiet rebellion against that system. It takes opportunity to the students who will never reach a university gate. It teaches practical, market-ready skills, communication, digital literacy, financial literacy, that can turn a teenager into an earner, a contributor, a possibility.
Phil Knight wrote in Shoe Dog that real change happens when people gain access to millions of entry-level jobs and finally get to participate in the global economy. Jugnuu starts one step earlier: we prepare young people for those jobs. If a single skill can lift an entire family, why wait for degrees most will never get?
Enduring the Mountain for Those Enduring Poverty
Kilimanjaro demands discipline. It forces honesty. It exposes your excuses. Zahed and Huzaifah welcome that test. They want every tough breath, every cold night, every stretch of doubt to remind them of the children enduring far harsher mountains at home, poverty, instability, broken systems.
And just like on the mountain, no one climbs out of poverty alone. Climbers need rope partners. So do communities. So does Jugnuu. Zahed and Huzaifa are climbing. But the rope is in our hands.
A Climb That Lifts More Than the Climbers
Jugnuu believes that resilience can be taught, dignity can be restored, and opportunity can be engineered. This climb is the symbol. The students are the purpose. The donors are the rope team.
If two men can climb Kilimanjaro to ignite thousands of learning journeys, imagine what we can do together.
Zahed and Huzaifah are climbing.
Jugnuu is teaching.
A child is waiting.
Hold the rope — donate today.
Your donation supports:
• teaching and training
• digital tools
• teacher salaries
• student income projects
• expanding Jugnuu centers
Every dollar becomes a step upward for a child who needs it.