DIL funds and manages 150 schools in partnerships with seven non-governmental organizations and directly operates a handful of schools. DIL has developed an educational approach that incorporates the following unique set of elements:

Local Partnerships: DIL’s unique approach to establishing and running schools in close partnership with regional NGOs and local communities has proven to be the most successful medium for providing education to students in the most remote regions of Pakistan.

Child-Centered Education: DIL actively engages in student-centered teaching at its schools. This approach is an alternative to the traditional system of rote learning and repetitive memorization and has proven to improve teacher and student attendance and retention as well as student achievement. Child-centered education emphasizes creativity with a focus on social and critical thinking skills.

Curriculum Development: Because it is a non-governmental organization, DIL has the opportunity to enhance the standard government curriculum to better prepare students for future success. The curriculum being developed is based on best practices throughout the world and better equips students to succeed in the global marketplace.

Teacher Development: In order to raise the level of education of students, DIL has undertaken an initiative to better educate its teachers. DIL is providing training to teachers to develop student-centered teaching styles that enhance the skill set of individual teachers. DIL recently opened the Teacher Development Center in Islamabad to provide pre-service training as well as ongoing in-service training.

Access to Technology: Technology is a powerful, enabling tool that can support critical thinking and other developmental skills. DIL is in the process of implementing an aggressive plan to equip its schools with computer labs so each student will have access to technology. Students will also have access to educational software that is specifically designed to supplement DIL’s curriculum.

Monitoring and Evaluation: DIL takes great strides to ensure that school projects are monitored regularly. The key to the success of DIL’s projects is a robust monitoring framework and complete financial transparency. DIL’s monitoring framework consists of a three-tiered approach that includes local monitors, regional monitors and national monitoring visits conducted by DIL’s Board of Trustees and Executive Board members.

In sum, YOUR DIL is primarily an events-based organization that promotes awareness and raises funds for DIL to operate schools.  We target a younger generation to raise funds and have many more events per year in each chapter than DIL’s model allows.

All of YOUR DIL’s formal attributes like auditing, legal, etc. are handled by DIL, but YOUR DIL is accountable for its own strategies and results, directing the use of funds raised for DIL.