Synergyzer

A network of schools being run by professional citizens of Pakistan to counter the growing lack of quality education for the underprivileged

A country which is the first Muslim nuclear power of the world, the basic rights of education still seem to be a distant dream for many, especially women. If recent stats are to be quoted, there is an anxious picture of education for all, especially girls. The overall literacy rate is 46%, while only 26% of girls are literate. There are 163,000 primary schools in Pakistan, of which merely 40,000 cater to girls.

Of these, 15,000 are in the Punjab Province, 13,000 in Sind, 8,000 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 4,000 in Baluchistan; according to a report by the Federal Education Ministry of Pakistan. One does not want to sound desperate, but the education situation in the country is very grim. It is in such times of darkness that people rise up to shed some much needed light and The Citizens Foundation (TCF) is the perfect example.

‘Through the power of quality education enabling moral, spiritual, and intellectual enlightenment. Creating opportunities to improve quality of life’, is the mission statement of TCF; a professionally managed, nonprofit organization set up in 1995 by a group of citizens to counter the dismal state of education for the poor in Pakistan. TCF’s main priority is to uplift the current state of female citizens of the country and for this purpose; it strives to promote education amongst them.

The organization has up till now established 910 purpose built schools in the country, all of which are located in urban slums and rural areas of Pakistan. These are areas characterized by extreme poverty, where people neither have the means nor access to quality education.  The foundation ensures that at any given time more than 50% of its students are females. TCF schools follow a curriculum in line with the officially prescribed syllabus by the board of their respective region, but it is suitably modified and regularly updated to meet the demands of modern-day education.

This is done to ensure that students receive the most up-to-date education which better prepares them to face the trials ahead and hone their skills respectively to such demands.  Each school is primary and secondary rolled in to one, ensuring that every child receives the same standard of education throughout their educational life. Education in TCF schools is imparted through formally trained teachers, hired strictly on merit basis. The foundation organizes an extensive Pre-Service Training (PRESET) for its new staff every year. This training is spread over 100 hours of various modules dealing with child psychology, learning styles, assessment methods and child-centered teaching strategies.

Apart from PRESET, rigorous In-Service Training (INSET) is conducted every summer to keep the existing faculty abreast with new trends and pedagogy in teaching. The schooling system provides 95% scholarship to most of its students, meaning almost every student pays only Rs.10 per month to acquire quality education, while books and stationary are provided for free. Every school is custom built by renowned architects and has a library, art rooms and computer labs. Currently 126,000 students are enrolled nationwide in TCF schools and about 9500 jobs have been created in TCF communities.

The vision of TCF is to create an educated Pakistan where every child acquires the same quality education regardless of class, religion or creed. Illiteracy, according to TCF, is the root cause of every evil in society today and the foundation does everything possible to eradicate this disease. In terms of priorities for the government, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and healing the sick will always seem to take precedence over basic education for the poor.

TCF is one of those charities that stand to provide basic knowledge of the world to those who are neglected by society and enable them to change their destiny.  TCF receives capital donations for constructing and equipping new schools. As such, these funds are used exclusively for that purpose. Non – capital contributions fall into two categories: Zakat and non-Zakat funds. Zakat funds are used to support the education of deserving children. Non-Zakat funds are spent on providing all education-related services and facilities to the schools. To support TCF’s vision of an enlightened Pakistan, please contact:

www.tcf.org.pk

35113445-59

Plot No. 20, Sector – 14, Near Brookes Chowrangi, Korangi Industrial Area, Karachi.

UNESCO and Nokia Pakistan’s combined effort at providing professional training to teachers in remote areas through a specially designed mobile application continues to enlighten lives and forge destinies Pakistan, as a nation, has a long journey ahead to get to prosperity and to achieve its targets; it needs to tackle certain problems prevalent in the society.

One of the most alarming issues on the front line is the high rate of illiteracy. Despite unprecedented growth in its living standards, the country has failed to rid itself of abject poverty and high numbers of unemployment.

Economists link this phenomenon directly to the high number of youth who are unskilled and uneducated which leads to them being unable to get respectable occupations.  In this world today, one of the major inequalities affecting the rural poor is the unequal access to quality education. Gender disparity is even greater in such regions; UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report’s recent statistics (2012) revealed that Pakistan is alarmingly in the bottom 10 countries according to the percentage of rural poor females who have never had any form of education. 62% girls in Pakistan aged between 7 and 15 have never spent time in a classroom (two-thirds).

UNESCO together with Nokia realize that ‘‘no nation can rise to the height of glory unless their women are side by side with them’’, a quote famously uttered by the founder of our great nation, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

In 2010, UNESCO and Nokia teamed up to uplift the prevalent education disparity in the rural regions by empowering women of these areas to attain basic education enabling them to better prepare for the difficulties ahead. The partnership enables the delivery of high quality education course material to teachers in these rural areas who then impart that knowledge on to their students.

The project was initiated under UNESCO’s ‘’Mobile Literacy training for Literacy Training of Rural Female Adults”, where Nokia agreed to provide its low-cost cell phones and a custom made app titled ‘eTaleem’.  eTaleem allows people to easily access lessons for Urdu reading, phonetics, word synthesis, sentence making, and basic math.

The application is made available on all affordable Nokia S40 devices. The application allows teachers in rural areas to download and view UNESCO’s 20 teaching DVDs each covering a different topic/subject i.e. The World Around Us, Basic Maths, Basic English language and other general subjects.  By enabling access to the high quality educational material via affordable mobile phones, Nokia broadens the reach of the UNESCO trainings to rural areas, supporting continued learning after the community classes’ attendance comes to an end.

Up till now, 2500 female learners in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab have used the eTaleem application as a part of UNESCO’s literacy training of rural female adults programme.

The mobile learning project seeks to increase the capacity of rural female teachers and improve early childhood care by leveraging powerful and affordable technology in intelligent and sustainable ways. There is large potential in promoting literacy through ICT, as these mobile learning tools host a great potential to make a real difference in people’s lives by giving them easy access to quality education. People, especially youngsters, are naturally motivated to connect, communicate and obtain information from others. ICT devices facilitate them to get literate and empower themselves.

UNESCO’s programme has so far received various accolades from government agencies as well as private sector and plans are now in place to incorporate it on a larger level so that more lives can be positively affected and more females of this country can stand up and make a positive contribution to the economy.

Cancer is perhaps the most dreaded word, especially so in children. Though in developed countries significant advances have already been made with survival rate of about 80%, the situation in Pakistan is still far from satisfactory. To tackle this dilemma, Children Cancer Foundation Pakistan Trust was constituted a decade ago with the vision and conviction to establish a Children Cancer Hospital (CCH) in Pakistan where quality cancer treatment can be given to every child and to create mass awareness about childhood cancer.

Over the years, CCH has grown and expanded steadily to a 42 bed Cancer Facility providing specialized, advanced pediatric cancer care round the clock to children. The Children Cancer Hospital has so far helped diagnose and treat more than 4600 children suffering from cancer and blood diseases. The hospital gets referrals from all over Pakistan as well as from Afghanistan. Due to this, the number of new cases being handled by the hospital’s outpatient department (OPD) has shot up to 100 per day, where the treatment protocol extended towards every child is of international standard.

Charity with Dignity is the core philosophy at CCH. The journey of hope which started from a mere Rs. 40,000 exceeded Rs. 150 million in 2013, with almost all expenses covered by zakat and donations. Despite the many challenges being faced by the hospital existing in a developing economy and society like ours, it has been able to reach a survival rate of 60%, with a number of cured patients doing very well professionally.

Capacity building, especially training of doctors and nurses has always been a priority at CCH. It began with one pediatric oncologist and two medical officers. Now there are three pediatric oncologists, three pediatricians and eight medical officers. The hospital has established a pediatric oncology nursing education department, which is the first of its kind in Pakistan. Also, there is a strong psychosocial support team that includes a teacher, psychologist and medical social worker. Besides these, the Clinical Research Department at CCH is working closely with the Indus Hospital Research Center.

Even with the advancement in medical and surgical techniques, cancer still connotates impending death for most and a large segment of the society still has a much unenlightened approach to it. Advocacy of childhood cancer is one of the missions of Children Cancer Foundation. It has been creating awareness about childhood cancer in print and electronic media through interviews, articles, leaflets and booklets.

Currently, an MOU with Indus Hospital has been signed to construct a new state of the art Pediatric Cancer Unit within the New Children Hospital at the Indus Hospital premises.

Children’s Cancer Hospital stands as a beacon of hope in the lives of those children suffering from cancer. The hospital needs your help and support to beat the curse cancer causes in young lives and ensure that the majority of childhood cancer victims go on to live wholesome and fulfilling lives.

Contact details:
Dr. Muhammad Shamvil Ashraf – Consultant Pediatric Oncologist & CEO
UAN: +92-21-111-160-170
Phone: +92-21-36369583
E-mail: info@ccfpakistan.org
Website: www.ccfpakistan.org

By Aleem Sheikh

“NEVER doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it`s the only thing that ever has.”

Margaret Mead, 20th-century cultural anthropologist

Off course, she was not wrong. This is a maxim that should be adopted by all advocacy groups, and particularly by the awakening ‘civil society’ of this country.

Mead’s emphasis was on ‘small group’, ‘thoughtful’ and ‘committed’. Rather than swearing at the government and the venal kleptocrats who run it, it would be far better were individuals and small groups to use, in a thoughtful and committed manner, the myriad opportunities available to Pakistan’s citizens to change their world, fight corruption and misgovernance, and vitally, protect their environment.

Charity has been defined in different ways through the ages and in diverse cultures. Charity is a basic aspiration to make a positive difference in the lives of others. Charity literally conveys the idea of goodwill demonstrated towards the human race. The concept of charity deviates a bit more as we think about who, what, why and how. Usually charity is more individualistic in nature and more immediate. A short term but “fix” of impulsive human generosity immediately applied to an obvious problem encountered by one or more people. This repeatedly takes the form of giving money for humanitarian crisis, providing free food or shelter for people and voluntary service by company employees or as a social-responsibility at social welfare organizations, schools etc.

There are various kinds of charitable trusts created for the security and preservation of good health. Charitable health organizations rendered support for the anticipation of diseases as well as for the eradication and cure of the same. This type of charitable organization is common everywhere in the world.

My question is; can we do something unique related to “Raise Big Money through Informal Charity”, here in Pakistan? Whenever I think about our Islamic events such as 12^th Rabi-ul-Awwal, Muharram, Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Azha etc.; new dresses, sweets and crackers is all that comes to my mind.

How many of us think of the less privileged people? How many of us are sensitive to their existence? Do we make any contributions to old age homes or any such charity institutions during or after these events? In the west, when celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas, people always donate nonperishable food like boxes of cereal, rice and wheat. During Christmas, every mall has a “Giving Tree”, sponsored by social organizations or wealthy people. Each tree has wishes of children in need about what they would like as presents for Christmas. Why cannot we, by virtue of our own selves, fulfill any needy child’s wish at least twice a year?

Keeping the Islamic perspective in mind, there are two kinds of charities; one is obligatory and the other is voluntary, called Zakat and Sadaqah, respectively. Islam encourages the sharing of one’s wealth with others and helps people to stand on their own and become dynamic members of the society. In my opinion, considering the kind of challenges we are facing, economically and culturally, the best way to distribute Zakat money is to give it to someone who wants to start their business for living or want to complete his or her education. Another noble purpose can be to give it to those parents who need it to cover the cost of their daughter’s marriage. Also, it is important to make sure that the money actually reaches the people in need.

Other than this, we should also try our best to help people in need of education, healthcare and other basic necessities. For instance, me and my colleagues have come up with the idea of collecting Rs.10 per day in a collection box where we drop that sum on a monthly or quarterly basis. Collectively, this becomes quite a sizable amount when the time comes to donate it. I know this is not much but we do try to do our bit.

I will also urge you all to come out and take this challenge and contribute by making a difference to the society in which you live.

The writer is the Operations Director Digital & Broadcast Media, Orient Next

By Abdul Rehman

In Pakistan; there is one doctor for every 1,206 people, 1 nurse for every 2,360 people, 1 bed for every 1,665 patients and the government spends a total of PKR 1,861 on a person’s health, which includes development charges. Although the situation seems bleak, hope is still there in the form of different organizations that work for the welfare of people in their time of need.

The Indus Hospital is one such organization working with the sole motive of pleasing the Divine power by serving His creations. It is the first state-of-the-art multi-specialty hospital, treating patients absolutely free of cost since the hospital was established in 2007.  The Indus Hospital is unique: It has a paperless and entirely computerized environment and all medical facilities are carried out entirely free of cost. Supporting the most vulnerable and affected segments of the society, and keeping in mind that it is these people who are most prone to diseases because of the unsanitary conditions and lack of health awareness, the institution represents faith, security, confidence, reliance and most of all, achievement.

Located in the heart of Korangi, the hospital is successfully able to cater to the needs of the impoverished segment of society. It provides quality healthcare of the highest caliber which lives up to the expectations of the patients. People from different religions, regions, communities, languages and socio-economic backgrounds are welcomed with open arms and treated without any bias or prejudice.

All of this could be traced back to 1986, when Karachi was hit by a bomb blast and the injured were rushed to the Civil Hospital for treatment. At that time, not everyone was able to get proper attention and the doctors felt helpless for not being able to do much. It was then that a group of doctors thought of building a hospital that would cater to the needs of the lesser privileged without having to worry about healthcare expenses. Back then, these doctors were medical trainees who went abroad for further studies and to follow their career paths, then returned to take their mission ahead. A group of philanthropists and businessmen joined hands with them to provide support in every way possible. In 2005, these individuals acquired the building of Islamic Mission Hospital with the condition of treating people free of cost. In 2007, The Indus Hospital took form as Pakistan’s first free general and paperless hospital.

The main building of The Indus Hospital currently contains facilities catering to patients needing specialized attention in the form of Cardiothoracic to any sort of General Surgery or Trauma; including Urology, Orthopedics, Ophthalmology, ENT, Plastic Surgery, Peadiatric Surgery, Dialysis and Emergency. The hospital has its own research department known as the Indus Hospital Research Center (IHRC) that not just works day in and day out researching on making lives better but is also working hard on its Community Outreach Program, going from house to house, informing people about various diseases surrounding them.

The Indus Hospital is proud to have Pakistan’s first purpose built building in the form of Ghori Infectious Control Disease Clinic, where the Tuberculosis patients are given the best treatment available in the region. Keeping in mind the disease’s contagious nature, the building is designed and constructed in a way to shield other individuals.

The best way to describe The Indus Hospital would be innovation and sophistication. The hospital captures all the important facilities to meet the needs of people in desperate need for support, ensuring utmost efficiency. Like any other proper institute, The Indus Hospital has all its departments intact and functioning. It has an Operations Department, Finance Department, Communications Department, Human Resource Department, Medical Record Department etc. The hospital recognizes the need of ensuring continuity of the Indus mission and vision and is not only developing endowments to ensure financial self-sustainability in the future, but also ensuring that the Indus Model is scalable and replicable, making it relatively easy for anyone who wishes to develop a similar hospital anywhere in the world.

The very foundations of the hospital and the ideology behind it serve to instill hope; a sense of unity and even to a large extent make us aware of our own roles in serving society for its betterment. In a short span of six years, The Indus Hospital has treated more than 1.4 million patients, with an average of 1500 patients per day and 40,000 patients per month. Around 40,000 surgeries and more than 36,000 Dialysis sessions have taken place within the hospital providing much needed relief to millions of families.

Currently running at a monthly operational cost of PKR 70 million, the hospital functions completely on Zakat and donations from its supporters who share the Indus vision of serving humanity at large.  To manage its quality healthcare system, the hospital needs our constant support whether monetary or through kind deeds. Our help is crucial and essential, and can bring about momentous and everlasting changes in an otherwise uncertain and sometimes even cruel society.

Due to growing need of such a hospital in our country, the hospital is on the path of expansion from its current 150 bed potential occupancy to 1500+ beds in the coming years. And, this needs complete support of its well-wishers. By laying down its foundations based on a strong value system and by following a sophisticated approach based on intricate and unique ideas, The Indus Hospital can now only grow and expand further.

Compiled By Umer Bin Dawood

Named after the famous drama and stage actor; Latif Kapadia Memorial Welfare Trust operates to support and assist the under privileged by providing education and health facilities in Karachi and adjoining areas

In an ideal world no one will go to bed hungry, every child will get an equal chance at education, there won’t be people dying due to lack of treatment and there won’t be any loss of life post catastrophe. Only in an ideal world though, because the reality is starkly different and alarming if one looks at the statistics available. Taking the gaze away from the world at large, eradication of poverty remains the biggest challenge the government of Pakistan faces. Colossal social problems and deprivations, mostly poverty-related, continue to shame the country every day. Most citizens believe that it is the job of the government to alleviate the various social problems plaguing the country, because after all, the leaders represent the people and are expected to provide solutions; to work their magic. Sadly, history teaches us another lesson. Leaders across the world have taken deep interests in wiping away poverty and its varying forms, but they have never been successful in creating the ideal world, not even close. In short, while the government must do its part to help alleviate our worst problems, it alone cannot solve them.

Fortunately, there are people out there who show extreme concern for the situation prevalent in the country and are ready to come out of their comfort zone to lend a helping hand to the government for battling the various social problems and their root cause.  Such a man was the late Latif Kapadia, a famous stage and drama actor, who was very well known for being a philanthropist, a man who was always concerned about the well-being of the under-privileged. His charitable heart inspired countless people associated with him, so much so that after his death in March 2002, a team of his admirers established Latif Kapadia Memorial Welfare Trust (LKMWT) to assist and support families by providing educational and health facilities on the outskirts of Karachi and few other cities.

Established in 2002, Latif Kapadia Memorial Welfare Trust is purely a non-business organization which has completed 13 years of its operations. LKMWT is involved in supporting social and humanitarian causes as well as being conscious of discharging its responsibilities in line with highly ethical business practices. Although the venture extends support to a variety of causes but for now are primarily focused on health and education. As far as education is concerned, the organization does all it can to help the masses attain literacy. LKMWT actively supports educational welfare projects such as TCF, Reflections, Zindagi Trust and Family Education Services Foundation etc. It also supports students throughout the country who show a desire to attain higher education but are limited by their circumstances. LKMWT either gives their families monetary assistance, or funds their education or buy educational accessories for them.

The organization’s first health project was MediHealth Clinic at Shah Faisal Colony that started in 2007, which operates to provide expedient and consistent clinical services on minimal charges. In January 2012, a second clinic was established in Malir Khokrapar. This location was chosen after careful analysis keeping in view the medical need of the underprivileged. Malir Khokrapar is a suburb in the city where people were deprived of basic medical facilities before the organization opened its clinic. LKMWT has also held several breast cancer awareness camps and free health & eye camps around the city.

During the 2008 earthquake, the management at LKMWT decided to provide relief equipment to people stranded in areas not being covered by other NGOs. Based on this philosophy, the volunteers of LKMWT were able to reach out to people in Shikarpur and Makli area of Thatta with food and medicines. In 2011, the charity was able to donate Rs. 4 lacs through volunteers already working on-ground in the flood affected areas of Sindh.

Currently, new clinics are being planned to expand LKMWT and its health provisioning welfare activities. Since they are in the pipeline, the projects are currently in need of funds to make them a flourishing reality in achieving Latif Kapadia’s mission to help people.

Ahmed Kapadia is the man in charge of LKMWT, the man who has entrusted upon himself the responsibility to take the charity further and use its resources to change the lives of millions and then possibly billions of people in need.  When asked about the idea behind the charity, Ahmed Kapadia had some nostalgic words to say, “My father, the late Latif Kapadia, was a great human being. It was to honor his memory and his commitment to social welfare which brought the Latif Kapadia Memorial Welfare Trust into the fray. I and my colleagues have always run this charity to give something back to the society which has made us the people we are today and in return bless my dad’s soul for whom this venture was started. I get great pleasure out of helping people in desperate need of someone’s support and I am sure my dad is somewhere up there smiling at me too.’’

He then talked about his vision for the charity and the future of philanthropy, “We envision a society where people are treated with respect and dignity and have all the access to their basic rights of health & education without any discrimination to their cultural values and social class.The problem is that our vision faces a constant challenge by the ever changing environment we live in. These changes have forced thought leaders to reconsider their philanthropic approaches and go back to the drawing board. We have been following this change for quite a while now, and have been participating in it. Now is the time for charity by all; the democratization of philanthropy. This is a moment in history when the average person has more power than ever. Social media sites and easy access to the internet has enabled people to start up charitable organizations from home which provide peer to peer access to the potential donors. Words like ‘philanthro-entrepreneur’ and ‘venture philanthropy’ are quite the rave and whatever we call these new ideas, they are here, and I think they are going to be quite significant in our quest to accomplish LKMWT’s vision. Our immediate plan is the setting up of a Clinical Laboratory in the premises of existing clinics to extend help to needy patients in order to benefit them from the convenience of on-site testing and timely results. We also plan to start an immunization program which will contribute to a healthy start to lives and ensure a child has a fighting chance at a better future. Vaccines are an important component to LKMWT’s holistic approach to nurturing a healthy community. Insha-Allah all our immediate and long terms goals will be achieved in due time, because we will not stop pushing until every single man, woman or child in need is taken care of.’’

DRIVING LKMWT

Name: Mrs. Mumtaz Liaquat Ali
Designation: President, Working Committee – Latif Kapadia Memorial Welfare trust

Synergyzer: Please detail your experience with socially responsible initiatives.
Mrs. Mumtaz Ali: I have been working with the social sector for the past 22 years; having founded the cancer hospital, Bait-Ul-Sakoon. . I also worked with Karwan-e-Hayat. Currently, I’m the Vice President and Treasurer at  Behbud Association, Karachi. With my experience, I helped establish the association and once that was done, I joined LKMWT.

Synergyzer: What motivated you to working for the social sector so diligently?
Mrs. Ali: My father’s affiliation and community service for the Spencer Eye Hospital was my inspiration. Ever since my childhood, I used to see him come home from work, tired, yet willing to facilitate people who could not afford healthcare with getting surgeries done as well as providing support.

Synergyzer: What is your role with LKMWT? How have you improved things?
Mrs. Ali: Being the President at LKMWT, I am overlooking the whole setup. Since it is an outpatient facility, I have made sure that there is experienced and educated medical staff running the MediHealth – I & II facilities efficiently, while cutting down the labor costs and improving the quality of the healthcare extended.

Synergyzer: How can a person decide when giving to any charitable initiative, if it is genuine and should be donated to?
Mrs. Ali: You can judge the organization by the area it is located in and how much is being charged from each individual. For instance, MediHealth clinics are located in slum areas like Shah Faisal Colony and Malir Khokrapar and we charge only Rs. 25 from every patient.

Also, if possible, potential donors can decide based on references about individuals running any organization if the initiative is genuinely working for the welfare of people or engaged in fraudulent activities.

Name: Dr. Seema Dilshad
Designation: Sonologist

Having graduated from The Muhammadi College as a Homeopathic doctor, Dr. Seema Dilshad conducts ultrasounds at MediHealth-II and assists patients in seeking further medical attention if required. Experienced as a Sonologist for three years, her decision to work at LKMWT was out of sheer compassion for the less privileged, who regardless, need basic healthcare. “I have always wanted to work for a setup working for the underprivileged. Being a doctor, I can help people with health consultations and LKMWT has given me the opportunity. LKMWT provides low cost treatment and even free treatment to those who cannot afford it.”

Umer Bin Dawood works at a leading PR agency in Pakistan and likes to keep a keen eye on all the latest developments in the world of PR, Marketing and Football. He can be reached at his Twitter handle: @UBD_26.

Contact:
House # 69-B, Sindhi Muslim Cooperative, Housing Society, Off Shara-e-Faisal, Karachi-74400, Pakistan.
Tel: +92-21-34389706
Cell: +92-315+8223499
Website: www.lkmwt.com

Recovery House is continuously developing a pioneering model of psychiatric rehabilitation for individuals seeking mental health services in Pakistan

The Recovery House is a project of Caravan of Life, Pakistan Trust with on-going technical assistance from Thresholds USA and is the first rehabilitation institution for mental illnesses in Pakistan. At Recovery House, the goal is to provide individuals an insight to their mental illness, understand how to treat it and help them cope with it , while improving their quality of life, and preparing them to integrate into the community as respected and empowered human beings. It was started in 2009 and has successfully improved the lives of scores of people who have never experienced a coordinated treatment plan.

In a country where mental illnesses are deemed incurable, where poor families abandon their family members suffering from some sort of mental illness, where medical costs don’t really allow the average person an equal opportunity for a top treatment plan; Recovery House is busy changing lives of people deemed mentally ill, because the institution realizes that people recover from even the most serious and persistent mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder when provided the appropriate treatments and support systems. Individuals recovering from mental illnesses are able to successfully live and work in the community, enjoy active social lives, attend school, practice their religion, maintain a healthy lifestyle — all while managing their own illness with the support they need. Recovery House offers that support.

The institution offers recovery-oriented psychiatric rehabilitation services widely recognized in the behavioral health field. Patients in need of psychiatric rehabilitation are provided person-centered services that are designed to address their unique needs consistent with their values, hopes and aspirations. Principal Consultants at the Recovery House are Caravan of Life USA Inc. In addition, leading medical practitioners continue to provide valuable advice and technical services and trainings to the staff there.

The Recovery House provides a safe and clean living environment with separate facilities for men and women. A split level, 6 bedroom house consists of comfortable living rooms, dining areas and ample open spaces.  The environment provides a feeling of comfort & security which are critical factors in the recovery process.  Green & natural spaces have been used globally as an effective means to promote mental and physical health.  The green garden at the facility is a beautiful landscape in the centre of the crowded city.

A Clinical Director devises a treatment plan customized for each patient so that they can re-enter community life as active and functional individuals. With that in mind, each treatment plan has a specified time frame.   A treatment team works in partnership with the patients and their families to review progress on a regular basis.  Treatment plans include counselling and occupational therapies, daily 6 hour activities which include yoga, music, cooking, arts, indoor and outdoor games, computer skills and financial management, and an individualized case management by a Case Manager, who helps in the achievement of short-term and long-term goals. Case management continues after discharge so that the patient’s health and behavior is constantly monitored and recorded. The Recovery House’s core philosophy is that the family support system is the strongest. Hence the staff works closely with families and expects them to be fully involved with the care, treatment, and rehabilitation of their family members.

The Recovery House firmly believes in educating the masses about mental diseases and their cure which is why it has a public awareness program. 3-6 seminars are held every year and the institution actively promotes itself through the local media and involvement of prominent psychiatrists, psychologists and other professionals, both local and International. The Recovery House is committed to promoting recovery, full community integration and improved quality of life for people who have been diagnosed with any mental health condition that seriously impairs functioning. The charity believes that psychiatric rehabilitation services are collaborative, person directed, and individualized — and certainly an essential element of the human services spectrum. As it is a nonprofit organization, its source of basic income is the funding it receives from across the globe.

The Recovery House can be reached at:

Phone: 021 345 46364/5/6
Cell: 0302 8260371
Address: 156 Bangalore Town, Tipu Sultan Road, Karachi.
Email: Info@caravanoflifetrust.org
Website: www.caravanoflifetrust.org

The organization works diligently to improve the overall condition of those who dwell in the city of lights by forming a platform comprising of leading social sector players in order to create maximal impact in areas of Health, Education and Nutrition

Karachi is the biggest and one of the most important cities of Pakistan. Unplanned urbanization and incontrollable growth has plagued it with a host of social diseases which usually malign the forgotten dwellers of this huge expanse; those living below the line of poverty – in the slums and on the streets. This is where Aman Foundation comes in and lends a helping hand to those who have no support of their own. The foundation is a local, not-for-profit trust, based and operating in Pakistan. Inspired by a proactive commitment to the cause of human development, the Foundation aspires to make strategic interventions to support development in the areas of Healthcare, Education and Skills, and Nutrition. Apart from its own social development initiatives, Aman Foundation also engages in venture philanthropy by providing strategic grants to high-social-impact organisations that work in the Foundation’s core areas of focus.

The foundation was set up through initial funding by the Aman Trust – a social sector enterprise, headed by Arif Naqvi and his family that aims to champion the rights of the underserved throughout the MENASA region. The initial $100m funding to Aman Foundation is the single largest in the country’s history and has enabled the foundation to initiate a host of projects aimed at uplifting the underprivileged lives of those residing in Karachi. The goal of the organization is to ‘Promote systemic change in the areas of health and education by creating sustainable and scalable social enterprises’, which it will expand to the rest of the country in its later stages. Health and Nutrition is the first pillar of the Aman Foundation’s strategy to reach its objectives and till date the organization has launched various unique projects to fight the growing percentage of preventable deaths in the city.  In September 2008, the first AMANGHAR was set up by the foundation as a relief house for children in dire need of a balanced nutritional diet. 3000 children were registered into the project and uptil now over 1.7 million meals (twice a day) have been served to the children at the ‘AMANGHAR’. The project at that time was one of its kind and provided a successful model for other social entrepreneurs to take inspiration from and expand further. Besides this, at the core of the foundation’s health initiatives are the Emergency Medical Services – ‘AMANAMBULANCE’. Started in 2009, the project now has 100 fully equipped ambulances operating all across the city and has conducted over 312,000 emergency distress calls till date. The ambulances also operated as mobile clinics during the flood relief efforts in 2010-2011. Aman Foundation has also set up a Tele-health service for the low income population and people stranded in far flung areas. The program hires top of the line doctors and medical advisers and has the capacity to handle half a million calls per annum. The model follows already successful set ups in India and sub-Saharan Africa and is currently planning for a nationwide growth through partnerships with Unilever and certain telecom companies.  Moreover, a chain of 20-bed clinics are being planned all over Karachi with an aim to address the extremely high maternal and infant mortality rates in low access areas. The four programs together form the Health and Nutrition services of the foundation.

After the health and nutrition services comes the educational part of the foundation’s work which is still pretty high on the organization’s agenda. Aman Foundation realizes that along with basic education, the youth of this country requires regular skill building and honing. For this purpose, the Aman Foundation launched a program for vocational training called ‘AMANTECH’. The program seeks to create a skilled work force which complements the strenuous requirements of the private and public sector organizations. Equipped with state-of-the-art workshops and a broad base of experienced instructors, the Foundation has allocated USD 40 million towards catalyzing skills training in Pakistan. To achieve success at scale, the foundation is partnering with specialist international vocational organizations, such as GIZ (Germany), City & Guilds (UK), and Skills International (Sri Lanka). Currently the Institute has 2000 students enrolled in 9 trades. Of the first batch 87% of students cleared the City & Guilds examinations, 22% achieved distinctions in their respective courses. Placing successful graduates into jobs is part of the undertaking the Foundation takes upon itself – all graduates to date have been offered jobs in the Middle East and The Foundation has also partnered with Arabtec to provide employment opportunities in the future to over 1,000 students annually, which provides their families with a stream of guaranteed income for their social uplift. The Aman Foundation also launched another educational program in 2011 which targets teacher training. Young graduates from all over the country are enrolled in the program and are placed as teachers in under-resourced schools of the country for a period of 2 years as volunteer teachers. Till date, 60 graduates are enrolled to teach in 40 low income schools and almost two-thirds of the volunteers hail from top business universities of the country. ‘AMANSPORTS’ is another one of its kind educational program which aims to provide children with a right to play and instill basic learning in them through sports. The program targets grass roots sports activities at school level and looks to create an opportunity for top performers on a professional level. The program looks to create a revenue stream to take its activities on a country wide scale through its operations and by bringing on board international sports organizations; Real Madrid Foundation signed a MoU with the Aman Foundation in Nov, 2012 to open up football and basketball academies in Pakistan for school going children. The last educational program of the Aman Foundation is the ‘AMANCULTURE’ which is basically an educational resource for those looking to use arts to achieve a better lifestyle. The primary focus is to provide the city youth with access to live culture through Aman’s Culture House located in Karachi. The program’s goal is to increase the level of appreciation for arts on grass roots level for which purpose the program runs a teacher outreach program that takes arts to low income schools of the city.

Apart from its 2 core services of providing Health and Nutritional, and Educational services, the Aman Foundation also strategically funds various other charity efforts throughout the country. Up till now, the foundation has provided grants worth $27 million to various charity and educational institutes. The Foundation’s work is a continuous process where each completed step leads to a start of another cycle targeting a larger audience and newer ideas. The Aman Foundation is probably one of the newer charities working in the country, but in terms of projects and success rate, it is considered amongst the best and it needs support from the privileged society to help in carrying out its objectives and continuously expanding.

The Aman Foundation can be contacted at:

www.amanfoundation.org

UAN: +92 (21) 111-111-823
AMANAMBULANCE: +92 (21) 1021
AMANTELEHEALTH: +92 (21) 111-11-3737
AMANTECH : +92 (21) 111-11-8324
Fax: +92 (21) 35823698