Karachi ; Global Celebrity, sports star and charity leader, Shahid Afridi, has announced the launching of a special food ration program for the destitute families of the students enrolled in the charitable schools supported by his non-profit in Sindh so that these children shouldn’t be forced to leave the classroom to earn a living for their households.
Afridi, who is also Chairman of the Shahid Afridi Foundation (SAF), made the announcement to this effect as he spoke as the chief guest at the inauguration of the new block at First Floor of his combined charitable school in Wangi Goth in Karachi’s suburbs. The school is jointly run by the non-profits Shahid Afridi Foundation SAF and Green Crescent Trust (GCT).
“The economic conditions have become so much adverse that the underprivileged families whose children are admitted to the charitable schools would soon think about the food shortage they are going to face as these students are no longer doing any labour work to earn money to feed their household members,” said Afridi on this occasion. The star cricketer said the special ration drive would be launched with his vision that charitable work by him in the education sector should become sustainable as the out-of-school children once enrolled wouldn’t be compelled to leave school at any time in future due to the economic compulsions. He also announced the adoption of government-run schools in Sindh, whose buildings are in a dilapidated state so as to secure the academic future of hundreds of students studying in each one of these educational institutions in poor shape. Afridi said that he would go to the feudal lords in Sindh to actively seek their help for the schooling of millions of children from deprived families in the rural areas of the province. The celebrity cricketer said that he was hopeful that the influential families in the province would fully support his drive to enroll out-of-school children.
“Up to 25 million to 30 million children are out of school in the country. It is a very alarming number so I call upon all the concerned charities and NGOs like as Green Crescent Trust to join hands with SAF, to combine their efforts for tackling this issue in the shortest possible time,” he said. He reiterated his resolve that the SAF would continue to do charitable activities in such remote areas where neither the government, any charity, nor any non-governmental organisation was available to help out the underprivileged people. Afridi expressed gratitude to all the donors, supporters, and well-wishers of the SAF for helping it to build charitable schools in Sindh.
He also thanked GCT for properly maintaining the Wangi Goth School and for its hard work to build spacious exterior and interior of the building of first floor and especially, classrooms with a very appealing environment in the new block. He said the bonding between the SAF and GCT continuing for the past five years had emerged as the best living example for other charities to work jointly to educate children in the least developed parts of the country. He also thanked Ansas Masood for attending the ceremony while informing the audience that Masood’s late mother, Nikhat Masood, generously donated all the expenses required to build Wangi Goth School some nine years back.
In his message, read out on the occasion, GCT CEO Zahid Saeed, acknowledged the unwavering support provided by the SAF, especially by its Chairman and CEO for running charitable schools in the underprivileged parts of Sindh.
Zafar Malik, SAF CEO, said that only quality education would enable the children from the deprived communities to transform not just their own lives but that of their family members and enable them to come out of the vicious cycle of poverty. He said the SAF would further strengthen its partnership with the GCT to educate a greater number of children in Sindh whose parents couldn’t afford quality schooling. He said the alliance between the SAF and GCT had emerged as an example for other concerned charities and NGOs to combine their efforts and resources for building charitable schools for children from impoverished areas.
GCT Trustee, Saad Zia, expressed gratitude to the SAF, for supporting the construction of the new block at Wangi Goth School on its first floor enhancing its capacity to enroll a total of 500 students, from destitute families in the area, in up to Class 10th. He said that together GCT and SAF had been running eight charitable schools in the underprivileged areas in Karachi’s suburbs having a total enrolment of over 3,000 students as 50 per cent of them are female students. He acknowledged exceptional philanthropy on the part of the Masood family as they had already supported for two more charitable GCT schools to renew their commitment to the cause of education for children from deprived families in Pakistan.
