An alliance of two non-profit organisations has announced that it would enrol 10,000 out-of-school children in one year in the network of their jointly-run charitable schools in Sindh.
The non-profit organisations, Shahid Afridi Foundation (SAF) and Green Crescent Trust (GCT), made the announcement to this effect at their joint annual fundraiser held at a hotel on Friday night. The event was attended by leading businessmen and philanthropists of the city.
The two charities have been working together in the education sector for the past four years and have accomplished enrolment of over 3,000 children from underprivileged families in eight jointly-run schools in the city. Both the charities aim to expand their network of charitable schools to tackle the gigantic task of enrolling out-of-school children.
GCT CEO Zahid Saeed said that over 22 million children were still out of school in Pakistan. He lamented that authentic data showed the number of illiterate children in the country surpassed the total population of Australia.
He said that the latest verified data compiled by the GCT showed that Pakistan’s total spending on education exceeded the defence budget of the country. The education budgets of provincial governments, Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, if combined together, were more than the annual defence budget of Pakistan, he explained.
He said that despite spending Rs1,300 billion on education annually, the country was far from tackling the issue of the out-of-school children as their number kept on increasing every year.
A GCT trustee, Saad Zia, said that a group of concerned businessmen 28 years back had adopted an abandoned building of a government school and hired teachers to revive academic activities for the needy children in an underprivileged area of Karachi.
He said the adoption of the government school building became the basis of the GCT’s creation that had now 155 charitable schools all over Sindh having enrolment of 29,000 children from needy families. He added that the footprint of the GCT’s charitable work had been present all over Sindh as its schools were situated from Sukkur to the Arabian Sea coast.
He claimed that the GCT had established its schools even in such areas where there had been no prior facility to educate the children. He added that the non-profit organisation’s charitable network had enrolled 1,950 orphans who were not just provided education but the pressing economic needs of their families were also regularly fulfilled.
Introducing his charity to the guests of the fundraiser, SAF Chief Operating Officer Rizwan Ahmed said the cricket celebrity Shahid Afridi had entered the field of charitable work in 2014 with the focus on the areas of health, education, community development, sports, and emergency relief for deprived communities.
He added that in all, the SAF ran 14 charitable schools all over Pakistan having an enrolment of 4,207 children from destitute families who were being given education free of charge.
He stated that the water supply projects built by the SAF had benefited over 25,000 families in 90 villages that had been supplied around 102,400 gallons of filtered water. He said that during the initial strict lockdown imposed in the country against the spread of Covid-19, Afridi had himself travelled 18,000 kilometres across the country, especially in Balochistan, to give food rations to the needy families.
He said Afridi had to attend the fundraiser himself but couldn’t do so due to health issues. He added that the cricketing star had personally sought an apology from the prospective donors who wanted to become a partner with him to educate children living in underprivileged areas.
Short documentaries showing the work of both the NGOs were shown on the occasion. The GCT’s documentary was about an orphan graduate of its school network, Danish Ghafoor, who later graduated from the IBA.
After completing his education, he became an entrepreneur by establishing his own livestock farm that now employs the local needy population of his village in Mehrabpur. The documentary showed that every child enrolled in the charitable schools of the GCT and SAF had the potential of following the footsteps of Ghafoor in practical life. Renowned actor, Adnan Siddiqui, conducted the show and expressed his commitment to the alliance formed between the GCT and SAF for educating the children of underprivileged families.