Govt urged to raise public’s awareness on safe charity

Inaugurating a seminar for media writers, columnists and bloggers on safe charity, Individual Land (IL) Director Gul Mina Bilal said that according to a research Pakistan ranked 61 out of 135 countries, with an overall percentage of 32, actively taking part in charitable acts.

The country ranked 67th with a score of 48 percent for helping a stranger, 45th with a 32 percent score for donating money, and 78th with a score of 16 percent for volunteerism.

However, Gul Mina while sharing her research observed that it was difficult to know whether the public donations and charities were going to genuine organisations.

She urged the government to play a pivotal role to inform the public of safe
charity. The public was requested to be extremely careful while giving donations and was encouraged to first acquire information about the organisations they were donating to.

Adding another researched fact, she said Pakistanis give an estimated amount of Rs554 billion in charity every year to seminaries, mosques, poor and homeless people.

The spokesperson for IL said Karachi being the largest city of Pakistan donates the most amount of money as compared to other cities of Pakistan.

Charity is given all year round but people are mostly active in giving charity during the month of Ramazan as 72 percent of the people were found to give charity during the holy month.

Only two percent donors are aware that their charity is being used to fund militant activities, while 26 percent of the people were found to be unaware of where their donated money is spent, according to a research.

Quoting another government based research, she said 69 percent of the charity in Pakistan is given in the form of money; 68 percent of the people donate money to the poor and homeless; 54 percent donate to their needy relatives; 14 percent donate money to support a poor student’s education; 8 percent donate to victims of terrorism, while only 5 percent donate to hospitals.

Concluding the discussion, the Gul Mina urged the government has to take initiatives to make people aware of the importance of knowing where their charity money is being spent. She suggested holding seminars, sensitisation sessions and also involving local government officials to inform the public.