Here’s the lowdown from Pakistan
Following a very successful Gala Dinner in November where we raised a significant amount of funds to set up a new school and community hospital, myself ad Inayat Munshi, Trustee and Founder member of Abaseen Foundation, made a self-funded trip to Pakistan last week to support Abaseen Foundation Pakistan to set up the new projects.
I have put together a daily account with a summary and pictures of what we did during our visit. I hope you find this interesting, as you can see your donations are achieving high impact for the people we serve in our projects.
Day One
Tuesday 30th January 2024
We met the Vice Chancellor and team at the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women’s University, the University that we are affiliated to award the degrees to the students attending our degree college for girls. We were delighted to discover that 7,000 young women are studying degree programmes on campus and there are 8,000 more studying in affiliated colleges. We were greatly reassured that we are affiliated to the right university. During our meeting with the Vice Chancellor, we heard a knock on the door, 6 of the 7 girls who qualified at A level at our MGM school for girls last year are attending this university, they heard we were on site and came to say hello.
The girls are very happy and thriving and we are so proud of them. The Vice Chancellor invited them in for tea and during our discussion we discussed their prospects, all of them will be delighted to return to Abaseen Foundation as teachers, managers etc and Mukhtiar confirmed that this is possible. We will keep track of their progress.
Helen with Vice Chancellor, AF PK team and 4 of the girls who graduated from MGM school for Girls
Day Two
Wednesday 31st January 2024
On day two we started with what is always a favourite trip we headed for the Noor Model School and the Health Centre on the brick kilns to visit two of our core projects. We met the children and teachers, enjoyed lunch with the children and met some of the relatives of the orphan children that we support.
The school results continue to be sustained at a high level. The families of the orphans all appreciate the support received and provided ideas of other ways we can help.
Enjoying lunch with the children - Feed a Child programme
Watching the children learn - Sponsor a Child scheme
Answering a question for Saba
Talking to the families of the orphan children on the Sponsor and Orphan Scheme
After leaving Noor Model School and the Health Centre we headed for the site of the planned new school. The plan was to discuss the new project with the community and the architect, meet some of the families, visit one of the brick kilns and take some pictures for you to illustrate the dire situation these people live in so that you can understand how the education through the new school will transform their lives as they will be able to gain decent jobs and leave the brick kilns. We also wanted to check progress with the project and installing the water supply. There is no main water supply in these areas deep bore holes need to be drilled until water is found and a pump is then fitted to bring the water to the surface.
The New School
The following picture illustrates the school we are building, this will take some time and more money than we currently have. During the trip we talked at length and agreed how to start with Phase One. Details of this will be sent to you soon.
Thanks to Inayat Munshi and family, the land is purchased, the boundary wall almost finished and the thanks to Rahilo Bano and family the water supply is installed and powered with solar panels.
Tahir - our architect - presenting the plans to us and the community.
Listening carefully
Inayat scrutinising the plans
A happy workforce, boundary wall almost complete
You can see the size of the site
Inspecting everything with the community
Endorsement by the community, the support of the community in this area is essential, they are very clear they 100% want this project for their community as soon as possible
New water supply
It works beautifully!
The community are delighted as they no longer need to fetch water like this.
So why are we developing this amazing new school, I took the pictures below to give you a sense of the life these people live now and how education can take them out of this trap of poverty that shortens their lives significantly and the years of life they do have are so hard.
This community is delighted that we have arrived and can’t wait for this new school to open. The school will provide education and will also provide jobs to people in this area and generate a real boost to the economy. The children who currently attend NMS school are not far away and will be able to attend this new school. You may recall we don't own the NMS school, it is in bad condition and is not big enough, we can currently take 400 children from nursery to primary school, the new school will have 1500 places for boys and girls from nursery to secondary school age.
The dreaded chimneys that belch out the poisonous gases because of the rubbish that is burnt to fire the kilns.
The rubbish that is burnt with the coal to get a hotter oven
The fires, I am stood on tip of the kiln eyes streaming with the poisonous fumes and I saw how the fire is fed with fuel. It was extremely hot, I can’t imagine how the people work here in the intense heat of the summer
The bricks ready for delivery to market
The life of the kids in the dirt
Children working, we hope to get these children into school
The brick kiln owner introducing us to a whole family working together
The living area
A young girl who feeds the fires by hand with coal
Day Three
Thursday 1st February 2024
Another special day visiting a core project Mian Gul Model school for girls (MGM) for girls in Shamshatoo age 4 to degree level and Brigadier Gulman Afridi (BGM) Boys school age 4 to A level, Vocational College and Period Poverty Project.
We were welcomed by teachers and students at BGM and watched an impressive display of physical fitness, met the boys and asked if there was anything they need to which they replied, more equipment for the science lab and a school trip for the boys who are in their final year at the school. Both requests were granted.
We then moved next door to MGM school and took part in a regulatory meeting with the Board of Governors, Shaheeda Benazir Bhutto Women’s University http://www.sbbwu.edu.pk/sbbwu/and the Higher Education Regulatory Authority (HERA) https://herakp.gov.pk/
The feedback from the meeting was that the university and HERA are very impressed with the standard of our projects.
We awarded toolkits to the students who have completed their apprentices through the Vocational College.
We interviewed and appointed 2 people to support the Wellbeing of Women including the Period Poverty project.
Arriving to a very warm welcome
An impressive display of physical fitness
All watching with pride
MGM regulatory meeting
One of the girls at MGM and many more in the background
Empty bookshelves need filling, we have a new project coordinated by Pete Ansell to collect relevant books and ship them to the school and degree college.
From MGM/BGM/Degree College we moved to the land that has been purchased with funds donated at the Gala dinner to build the new Community Hospital. The land is in a remote area where the communities have no access to health care. This hospital will replace the current health centre, it is not far away and the people who use the current services will be able to travel easily on foot to this new hospital. The greatest impact of this facility will be for the people who live and work on the brick kilns who have no means of accessing good healthcare and life expectancy is currently 38 years, we plan to improve this figure to extend life and improve the quality of life for these people.
The land has been purchased and during our visit we agreed Phase 1 of the hospital development plan which will reprovide the current health centre facilities. Future phases will be developed as funds are available. We have an ambitious fund-raising plan to complete this and the new school project. We will keep you informed as things progress.
Day Four
Friday 2nd February 2024
This was day spent in AF PK offices completing the following:
1) Audit AF PK accounts
2) Detailed meeting re budgets and financial planning for each core project Sponsor a Child (SAC), Feed a Child (FAC), Orphan scheme, Vocational Training, WoW and period poverty
3) Project plans and draft Phase 1 plans for the new projects agreed for approval by Board of Governors and Trustees
4) Interviewed and appointed support for donor management and reporting through a new donor management system.
Day Five
Saturday 3rd February 2024
Departed Peshawar airport 9am feeling very humble and totally satisfied with the progress made so far and project plans for the completion of new projects.
Summary of the Trip
Inayat, founder member and Trustee and I experienced an intense 4-day trip and achieved the following:
1) We visited all our current core projects, we were welcomed at MGM school, BGM school, the Vocational College, the Degree College, NMS school, WoW project, Orphan Scheme, and the health centre. We observed the regulators of education confirming their high level of satisfaction in the schools and particularly the educational standards we are achieving. We met happy teachers and students, users of the health centre and hospital staff who are very excited about the new community hospital, families of the orphans who are very satisfied with the support that donors are providing, and they gave us some ideas how to extend the scheme, women who are benefitting from the period poverty project.
2) We visited sites for the new school and community hospital, we held detailed planning meeting with the community and agreed master plans and project plans for phase 1 of each new project. We are now working on names for these two new projects. The communities that will benefit from both developments are delighted and very keen to see them complete. Community support for our work in these remote areas is central to the success, we are well known and trusted in the area through the work we have done over the last 20 plus years that has developed the socio-economic status of these poor people.
3) We completed a thorough audit and reconciliation of the financial positions of AF UK and AF PK. We can confirm that AF PK are delivering value for money with the funds you donate.
Following our trip on behalf of all of you, Inayat and I can confirm that the core projects and the new projects are meeting our core aim as a foundation to provide the best facilities to the poorest people, and as confirmed by the people we met, external regulators, the people who use the services and the communities we serve, the services we are providing and developing are of the highest standard and provided to some of the poorest people in the world.
Thank you for your support, please continue to support us as we develop these major new projects that will have a major impact on the lives and economic development of this remote, deprived area.
If you would like to help right now, please do get in touch. We need more funds for both new projects for example:
Would you like to sponsor a classroom to be built?
can we support you to set up a campaign to raise funds for a classroom?
would you like to fund an essential piece of equipment for the new community hospital?
Would you like to fund a particular aspect of the new community hospital, for example the mother and child unit?
There are many things you can help us with, please do get in touch.
