A School in the Park: Pakistani Man Devotes Life to Teaching Children in Outdoor School

On any given day in the Pakistani capital, a group of young people can be seen gathered outdoors in an open field, books open and looking at makeshift blackboards attached to metal pipes in an open-air school.
The school is the product of years of effort by Mohammed Ayub, a Pakistani man of humble origins who turned a promise to his dying father to make sure his siblings got an education into a life dedicated to teaching the less fortunate of this city. For three decades, children who might otherwise have gotten no education sat through his classes.
"I really don't remember how many have passed through (the school). They must be in thousands," Ayub, who is to be honored Monday at a ceremony in the eastern city of Lahore, told The Associated Press at the field where classes are held. "What I know is that I will continue this mission until my last breath."