Karachi: 13th July, 2021 – Thar Foundation – a non-profit organization, primarily supported by the leading business group of Pakistan – Engro, has now signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Human Development Foundation (HDF), a renowned social-development organization, based in Islamabad. As per the scope of this collaboration, a resourceful initiative has been launched to ensure better quality of life in the impoverished Thar region, while also improving access to school-education for the young girl-residents of this remote area.

HDF will begin with the provision of two school-vans, for the girl-students of numerous schools, being operated by the Thar Foundation. These school vans have been purpose-built and fitted with special equipment, to ensure the safety of the female students. This philanthropic program will also enable one family to graduate out of poverty, while at least 16 girls will get sustainable access to school. Since, this developmental-intervention is being rolled out according to a self-sustained, social-entrepreneurial model, the HDF and Thar Foundation will not need to bear any continued financial-obligation or additional costs, after the initial social-investment.

Over the next phase; HDF will also plan its intervention in the areas of; Agriculture livelihood and water-sector. Since Islamkot is the target area of Thar-Foundation, these efforts may include, but are not limited to, providing submersible-pumps to local farmers, enabling them to practice bio-saline agriculture at community level, where Thar Foundation will support and share its institutional expertise too.

Reverse-Osmosis (RO) plants are also being adopted by HDF in the Dali and Chachro areas, in partnership with the District Government. Whereby, HDF will repair and operationally maintain these plants through its own resources, while engaging the local communities to run these essential amenities. Thar Foundation will provide the technical expertise, to empower and train the local women for operating these RO plants.

Syed Abul Fazal Rizvi, Chief Executive Officer, Thar Foundation stated “We are pleased to work in cohesion with a credible institution like HDF, to improve the standard of living for the deprived communities of Thar. We shall provide the required office-space and other resources for three staff members of HDF, who will carry out field-activities for these interventions, aimed at delivering many communal benefits, like; education, health, empowerment, etc.

In future, Thar Foundation and HDF may jointly bid to receive developmental grants, or explore international funding opportunities, to expand the scale and scope of these interventions, for building capacity and strengthening their mutual performance.