PESHAWAR: An amount of Rs6.8 million was pledged to the Al-Khidmat Foundation branch in Charsadda at an event devoted to orphaned children.
The largely attended “An evening with Orphaned Children” was held in Charsadda. The owner of the wedding hall, the venue of the event, served dinner to the participants as his share in the donation campaign. Some donors gave cash donations while the majority pledged to pay the money in the coming days.
A number of orphaned children attended the function. Among them, Qari Mohammad Arshad recited from the holy Quran to herald the proceedings of the event, Mohammad Hasnain presented a ‘na’at’ and a group of small boys and girls led by Abbas performed a tableau that highlighted the pain of losing one’s parents.
Ashfaq Ahmad Khan, the Al-Khidmat Foundation Charsadda head, said the foundation had set up six schools in Charsadda where 3,900 students were enrolled and was also running the Al-Khidmat Hospital. He said the foundation set up the Hazrat Ayub Ansari Model Village where 41 houses were built for the people affected by the 2010 floods. He added that the foundation was also taking care of the needs of orphaned children in Charsadda. He said an amount of Rs5.7 million was received in a donation campaign in Charsadda in 2018 and this year Rs6.8 million was collected.
Khalid Waqas, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president of the Al-Khidmat Foundation, said a survey showed that there were 4.2 million orphans in Pakistan, including about 10,000 in Charsadda district. He added that the foundation was working in different fields, including education, health, care of orphans and other vulnerable sections of the population. He said an orphanage, Aghosh, was providing quality education and care to orphans in Peshawar.
Mian Abdul Shakoor, the central head of Al-Khidmat Foundation based in Lahore, said Holy Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) had made it clear that anyone caring for orphans would be as close to him on the day of judgement as two fingers of a hand. “A better way to take care of the needs of orphans is to own the same number of orphaned children as their own children,” he added.
He informed the audience that Al-Khidmat Foundation was looking after the needs of more than 11,000 orphaned children in the country and had plans to take more orphans under its care. He said the foundation was dependent on donations for its work in different fields and its network was spreading fast in Pakistan due to the response of donors.
Senior journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai also spoke on the occasion. Shoaib Hashmi acted as the stage secretary. Former MPA from Upper Dir district, Mohammad Ali, conducted the donation campaign in an effective manner as he exhorted those present to make donations for seeking the blessings of Allah.
