After the formal launching of orphan-care programme across the province and the adjacent tribal belt, Al-Khidmat Foundation’s Peshawar chapter disbursed the second payment among some 300 orphan students, who are studying in different educational institutions.
The cheques were distributed at a ceremony at the district office of the foundation here, where the orphan students and their mothers served both as guests and participants. Khalid Waqas Chamkani, district president of foundation, gave away the cheques to students.
The foundation under the orphan care project is financially supporting around 2,500 students across the province. Each student is provided a monthly scholarship amounting to Rs2,500 for his academic expenses and family support.
Talking to The News after the ceremony, Khalid Waqas some 310 such students hailed from Peshawar district. He said apart from the monthly scholarship programme, Peshawar chapter of the foundation had set up a state-of-the-art ‘Aghosh’ centre – a boarding house – for the orphan students where quality education and the best possible accommodation is provided to them.
The centre has already started functioning. It would, however, be formally inaugurated by Jamaat-e-Islami head and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Minister Sirajul Haq tomorrow (Tuesday).
Khalid Waqas said that Al-Khidmat Foundation was serving the people particularly those belonging to the poor strata of the society in different sectors. He said the main focus of their activities was disaster – both natural and man-made. He said they remain in constant contact with the district administration and other relief and rescue bodies like Edhi Foundation, Rescue 1122 and reach the spot of occurrence at the earliest.
“In case of a bomb explosion, we shift the victims to hospital. We hand over the injured to the hospital staff. But the dead remain our responsibility. We clean the bodies, stitch them, if needed and put them in coffins. No other organisation – government or non-governmental – take care of the bodies,” Khalid Waqas said.
He recalled that their volunteers had managed coffins for 62 people killed in the All Saints Church blast. “The volunteers of Al-Khidmat Foundation recovered 26 out of the 28 people who drowned in Budhni river last year,” he added.
He said they shifted the bodies to their hometowns in free ambulance service of the foundation. “We also call the family members of the victims and console them,” he said. He said the foundation had one of the biggest ambulance systems in the province. “The volunteers of Al-Khidmat Foundation also take care of the valuables of the victims of the disasters and hand it over to their family members,” he said.
Khalid Waqas said the foundation was also providing services in water and sanitation sectors. “We also carry out various projects in different sectors assigned to us by national and international donors,” he said.
“Another important project of the foundation is the provision of informal education to the street children. Some 200 street children in the district are currently getting education in the foundation’s centers,” he added.
He said they also provided support to the poor women in marriages. “We not only provide dowry for poor women, but also arrange marriages for the poor families,” he said.
In a recent mass wedding ceremony some 25 couples tied the knot and they were provided dowry worth Rs100,000 each, he said. Khalid Waqas was of the opinion that they were facing some serious challenges in training of the volunteers and provision of temporary accommodation to them.
He asked the provincial government to provide them a 20-marla plot where they could set up a training centre for the volunteers and a parking lot for their ambulances.
Source: The News.
