Sajid Irfan

Social welfare organisations and Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) have joined hands to alleviate poverty in Pakistan, WealthPK reports. The joint efforts by the private sector welfare bodies and government-run BISP are expected to provide relief to the marginalised communities, especially in the rural areas of the country. The government runs different poverty eradication and skill development programmes in remote areas with the help of non-governmental organisations.

A spokesperson for BISP told WealthPK that the number of beneficiaries of the programme was 60,000 in 2007. Now eight million people in the country are supported by the government through BISP. “We have formed 0.147 million organisations in 147 districts besides 130 civil society organisations through which we transfer funds to the needy citizens. The basic aim of BISP is to reduce poverty in Pakistan,” he said.

He said that BISP gave a grant to hundreds of thousands of families to start their own businesses at a low level. He said that BISP imparted technical and vocational training to 28,000 youth including boys and girls. He added that BISP formed millions of groups in different areas of the country to provide services to people in the sectors of health, education and water supply.

Amjad Mehmood Amjad, the director of Helping Hand Relief Development, told WealthPK that HHRD is an international relief development programme launched by Pakistani Americans. HHRD is working in 18 different countries. He said that HHRD was presently working on emergency and disaster management, support of orphans, rehabilitation of disabled people, skills development and livelihood, interest-free loan scheme, healthcare and nutrition, water for life, education and empowerment of women.

Amjad Mehmood said that in Pakistan, HHRD was working in four provinces besides Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He said that 883 projects, launched by HHRD, benefitted more than 1,500,000 people in the previous year. The Edhi Foundation is one of the largest welfare organisations in Pakistan. Its main focus is on emergency services, orphans, physically-challenged persons, women shelters, education, healthcare, international community centres, refugees, missing persons, blood donation, drug rehabilitation, air ambulance services and marine and coastal services.

Edhi Foundation has more than 300 centres in big cities, small towns and remote rural areas across the country. The organisation imparts standard education to needy children besides providing vocational training to youth in the fields of pharmacy, driving and paramedics. Farhan Cheema, the area manager of the Akhuwat Foundation, told WealthPK that the foundation is a non-profit organisation working for the eradication of poverty in the country. He said that it had more than 800 branches across the country.

“Akhuwat Foundation runs five major programs including Akhuwat Islamic microfinance, Akhuwat education services, Akhuwat clothes bank, Akhuwat transgender support programme and akhuwat health services. The main objective of running all these programmes is to provide financial assistance to the poor segments of society,” he told WealthPK.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk