Founded by some like-minded philanthropic members of Pakistani expatriate community seven years ago, Pakistan Welfare Forum (PWF) is making a real difference by reaching out to support the needy segments of society in different sectors particularly education, health and social welfare.
Through its Education for All programme, PWF has already educated 800 children while 450 more are currently benefiting from it. The organisation, working under the patronage of Pakistan Embassy in Qatar, is also coming up with programmes for vocational training and education of out-of-school children in the near future.
“Being Muslims, it is our primary responsibility to look after the poor and spend our wealth to help the poor out,” Mohammed Idrees Anwar, a founding member of PWF, told a large audience at the Annual Dinner of PWF held at Sapphire Plaza recently.
The office-bearers of PWF and its associated organisations briefed the members of Pakistani community and other invited guests about the progress made so far in their different social welfare programmes besides the future plans.
“Pakistani community members are gathered here to pursue the sacred cause of supporting PWF’s vision of providing education, social and health welfare assistance to deserving Pakistani expatriates in Qatar,” said Anwar.
The chief guest at the occasion, Rashid Nizam, the Community Welfare Attache at Pakistan Embassy, congratulated the members of PWF on their successful campaign and hoped “they would continue to make a difference in people’s lives through their mission.”
While giving a presentation on PWF’s Education for All, Ahmed Hussain, a member of the PWF Steering Committee and Education Committee, briefed the audience on the progress made so far. “We have educated about 800 children till date and about 450 children are currently getting education under the programme Education for All. We believe that there are around 2,000-4,000 out-of-school children between the age of five-15. We presented a proposal to address this issue with Qatar Foundation,” Hussain said in a chat after the presentation.
There is a good possibility that they might join forces whereby the QF through its Education Above All programme will provide probably the facilities and finances as discussed.
“We intend to open about four schools, each having 400-500 students and in about four to five years we intend to address the issue of entire out of school children in Qatar,” said Hussain.
“We have an alternative programme that we are already working on where along with PWF, Raf Charity is our partners. Also, Ezdan Holding is also supporting us. Together, we want to expand the programme within the available resources. The best, however, would be if the authorities join forces with us,” he added.
Hussain said they now have enough experience of about five years and they can eliminate the out-of-school children problem from Qatar. The objective is to uplift the deprived segment of communities through education and make them stand on their own.
They also intend to impart vocational training after basic education and then after imparting some skills to them they will also help them secure employment. The PWF members who have industries and employment opportunities will employ those trained students who go through Education for All programme of PWF.
“We gave a very comprehensive proposal whereby the four schools will be run by a board of directors. The members will be PWF, QF through its EEA programme, Raf, Rota and Ezdan Holding as well. It will be a combined effort,” said Hussain.
But PWF, so far as discussed, will be trusted with running the programme. The model will be Prep school where they would prepare the children for partly prep and partly regular school before transforming them into a regular school.
Riaz Ahmed Bakali, the president of PWF, said their main activity in the past two-and-a-half years has been the focus on education. “We have tried to make sure that we facilitate those parents who are unable, either financially or socially, to send their children to schools. We have five education programmes,” said Bakali.
“Then we help the financially deprived families making them meet their ends by helping them monthly. In the health sector, we also support those patients who cannot afford their medical treatment despite the fact the medical facilities in Qatar are fantastic. Yet a segment of society cannot afford them,” he added.
On the legal side, Bakali said, they support the non-criminal legal cases such as the residence expired, repatriation of bodies and detention due to non-criminal reasons. They help such cases through advice or financial support in order to bring them back into the society once again.
PWF has taken a fresh initiative in the education for special children. “Education for special children in Qatar is very expensive and there is a long waiting list. So we have started special education within our community schools where we bring in special children from the community on a very low fee where they can become an effective component of the community,” said Bakali.
There are two more programmes in the pipeline, he added, that include a vocational training centre as there is a work pool of people who are either semi-skilled or non-skilled. “We want to utilise them for Qatar Vision 2030 and 2022 by giving them by some vocational training,” said Bakali. The other one is Education for All programme for out-of-school children.