Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani has praised the exceptional philanthropic support extended by the industrialists of the Korangi Industrial Area (KIA) in Karachi to ensure that the children of the labourers employed by them get quality school education.
Ghani expressed these remarks while speaking as the chief guest at the inauguration of the Al-Badar campus, school of the non-profit Green Crescent Trust (GCT) in the Sharifabad locality of the KIA, on Saturday.
The Al-Badar campus has become the 170th charitable school of the GCT, which has been continuously striving for the past 30 years to educate children from underprivileged families in Sindh.
A total of 10 GCT schools in Sharifabad and the adjacent Mehran Town localities, both backward neighbourhoods mostly inhabited by labourers working in the KIA, have enrolled over 2,222 children, of whom 60 per cent are girls.
Up to 80 per cent of the teachers at these schools are women. The state-of-the-art building of the new school of the GCT in the area, having an enrolment of over 350 students, was built in just five months.
The LG minister praised the GCT’s charitable work in the education sector in Sindh that has been continuing for the past three decades without a pause.
He appreciated that businessmen associated with numerous industries in the KIA have been generously donating to the GCT’s schools in the area to ensure quality schooling for the children of mainly industrial workers.
He said that the outstanding philanthropic assistance by the KIA’s concerned industrialists for the cause of the education of children from the underserved areas sets a healthy precedent for businessmen in the rest of the country to lend the fullest support to noble charitable drives for school education for deserving communities.
He eulogised the Korangi Association of Trade & Industry (KATI) for keeping its member industries motivated to fully support philanthropic efforts aimed at benefiting the families of industrial workers.
He told the audience that the provincial government values the services of genuine charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have been lending full support to the noble campaign of enrolling out-of-school children in the province.
The minister said he has first-hand knowledge of the sincere efforts of non-profits like the GCT for the past many years to provide quality school education to children from disadvantaged communities.
He appealed to the concerned philanthropists, businessmen and donors to fully support such genuine charities in the education sector that have been actively partnering with the government to end illiteracy in the country.
KATI President Syed Johar Ali Qandhari said that the concerned businessmen and industrialists of the Korangi industrial estate would continue to extend the fullest support to genuine charities like the GCT to end the issue of illiteracy in Pakistan in the shortest possible time.
He said that supporting charitable drives aimed at the provision of quality education to underprivileged children is one of the best community uplift services by Pakistani businesses.
KATI Deputy Patron-in-chief Zubair Chhaya greeted the GCT for its uninterrupted struggle for the past 30 years to build quality schooling facilities in remote and underserved areas in Sindh. He reaffirmed KATI’s fullest support to the efforts by the government and concerned NGOs to enrol out-of-school children.
GCT CEO Zahid Saeed praised that a leading donor of his non-profit chose to remain completely anonymous to fund the building of its new school. He said that the same anonymous donor, through his exceptional philanthropic support, ensured the education of 5,000 students enrolled at GCT schools.
He expressed gratitude to the committed patrons, donors and supporters of the GCT’s educational drive that have been massively benefiting a total of 32,199 students enrolled at the schools of his non-profit.
He said that the services of the GCT are always available to the concerned government authorities, NGOs and other non-profits in the education sector that strive to achieve the aim of enrolling out-of-school children in the country.
