Providing new clothes for Eid to 1350 poor kids

Pakistan’s economy is being hit hard by the twin shocks of Covid-19 and desert locust. These have created a high risk of food insecurity and hunger in the country. The main problem is not the availability of food. It produces more cereal crops, wheat and rice, than the national requirement. Unfortunately, the country’s food policy has failed to recognize food as an entitlement for its citizens, particularly for the poor and the vulnerable. They are not able to access and afford enough food.

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has recently released the key findings of the Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES), 2018-19. It reveals that 16% of the population is experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity. The incidence is twice as high among the rural population, 20%, as among the urban, 9.2%. Shockingly, three out of five households, 61%, among the lowest two income quantiles in the survey, are experiencing food insecurity.

The situation has further worsened since March 2020 as a result of the pandemic crisis. As the economy has shrunk, the rate of unemployment and poverty has risen. The worst affected are the poorest segment of the population, who are more likely to be wage labourers, peasant farmers, women, and children.

NUR Foundation took an initiative in 1985 and started a program known as NUR Community Outreach Program (NCOP). The purpose was to serve the community in various sectors including, health, education and employment. Additionally, various programs under the aegis of NCOP are working to ameliorate poverty. One such program is NUR Sandooq which not only is providing food to the poor but also focuses on providing clothes. The idea behind it was to make storage facilities for donated clothing in all the elite areas of Lahore and to encourage people to donate apparel items for the underserved community. In execution of the plan, one dedicated room known as Sandooq is placed in Fatima Memorial Hospital, Shadman Lahore. The donors often come and drop off apparel items in the Sandooq and those items are then distributed among the underprivileged people living in the backward areas of Lahore including Malikpur, Nainsukh, Lakhodair and Gajjumata.

There are a total of around 2,100 students currently enrolled at NUR Foundation schools and they all belong to impoverished backgrounds and are unable to afford two basic meals of the day let alone clothing items. Hence, we wish to increase our donor base in the future which would help us in meeting the clothing needs of the children at NUR schools.

We will be now moving into the winters and all these deserving children will be needing clothes for winters. Our esteemed donors have always supported the cause and we urge you to support more this winters.

Thank you so much.