LOWER DIR: The administrators of an orphanage, the Aghosh Al-Khidmat center Gulabad Saeedullah has said the center needs financial assistance for the purchase of a students’ bus and land for a playground for reducing the concurrent expenses of the center. He appealed to organizations working for children’s rights and philanthropists to provide financial support to the Al-Khidmat Foundation (AKF) for the sponsorship of orphans residing at his center. He was talking to members of the district press club Timergara who were invited to the Gulabad center in Lower Dir here on Sunday. The journalists led by their president Ismail Anjum visited the Aghosh Al-Khidmat center Gulabad in the Lower Dir district. The AKF central assistant general secretary Fazal Mahmood, district president Hafeezullah Khaksar and in-charge Saeedullah briefed the visiting journalists regarding the overall facilities available to the orphan children. They said that a total of 84 orphan children from the Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Bajaur, Chitral and Malakand were being provided with free residence, education, healthcare and sporting facilities. They said the deserving children were selected under strict merit criteria irrespective of their families’ political and social background.
The local journalists spent some time with the orphans and participated in their routine activities. They also checked their residential accommodation, education and training, food, medicine, washroom, IT lab, conference hall and study room of the children and expressed satisfaction on the facilities provided to the orphans.
Later a joint function of local journalists and orphans of the children was held which was addressed by the AKF leaders Fazal Mahmood, Hafeezullah Khaksar, Saeedullah, president of the district press club Timergara Ismail anjum, president of the Chakdara press club Shah Faisal, senior journalist Haleem Asad and others.
Fazal Mahmood and Hafizullah Khaksar said that a total of eighty-four orphans had been sponsored by local and outside male and female donors. They said that all of the orphans were being provided with free education at local standard private educational institutions. They said that each child was given Rs 30 daily as pocket money. They said the AKF arranged a donors’ conference each year during which the children got sponsorship. They were of the view that due to lack of residential facility there was no room for more children in the center if another floor was built then more children could get admission. The local journalists were impressed by the facilities given to the orphans living at the center and they promised that both the Timergara and Chakdara press clubs would extend their possible support to the AKF and its Aghosh center Gulabad for the best care of the orphan children. Gifts and appreciation certificates among the journalists were distributed on the occasion.
