Continued support for grassroots uplift promised

Islamabad: Tokyo will continue providing Islamabad with “flexible and timely” support to improve the social well-being of Pakistanis at grassroots level with the help of local organisations, said chargé d'affaires of the Japanese embassy Ito Takeshi.

He was speaking during a ceremony held to inaugurate solar panels installed in a village school of Swabi district with Japan’s financial assistance. The Japanese government provided $58,928 grant (around Rs16.7 million) to the local NGO Shewa Educated Social Workers Association, which works in the fields of education, infrastructure, and environment, for executing the project.

The organisation has received financial assistance from the Japanese government for the third time. This time around, it utilised the grant to install solar panels in the school to manage the problem of frequent power outages in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly way, according to the Japanese embassy. It said the initiative would improve the students’ learning during hot weather by ensuring that the classrooms continue to be properly lit up and cooled amid power cuts.