Well Done, Pakistani Americans
By Asif Noorani
Karachi , Pakistan
The Pakistani Diaspora in the US, as elsewhere, have by and large done a great job for their country of origin. It is not just the highest remittances sent by Pakistani expats in the just concluded financial year but also the enormous contributions made by them to different charities in Pakistan.
Let me mention the one non-profit that I have been following closely since 2002 when it was established. I am referring to TCF-USA, a professionally-managed body, which has the support of volunteers in different parts of the huge host country. It has raised substantial donations for The Citizens Foundation (TCF) in Pakistan – starting with a modest beginning in the first year of its inception to 2010, when eight schools for the economically underprivileged students in different parts of Pakistan were financed exclusively by TCF-USA. In all, 71 of the schools in the TCF network have been donated by US supporters; several Americans have also traveled to Pakistan at their own expense to provide training to teachers and conduct summer science camps for TCF students. I was impressed to learn that several Pakistani Americans from New York and Boston arranged for the donation of two 40-feet containers of children’s books.
Danial Malik, the organization’s CEO and one of the founding members of The Citizens Foundation Pakistan, is reluctant to predict or even make a guesstimate about this year’s donations because a substantial portion of 2010 donations were given to meet the challenges posed by the floods in Pakistan, hence it may not be possible to match the performance this year. Donations raised by TCF Pakistan and the support bodies in the US, Canada, the UK and the UAE were used to distribute over 20 million meals in the brief period of 30 days, rebuild the 68 TCF schools in the flood affected areas and equip them with filtration centers to provide safe drinking water to students and their families. Since then TCF-USA donors have provided funding to equip all the TCF schools throughout Pakistan with these clean water centers.
At the risk of repeating myself, I may add that as many as 731 TCF schools in slums in cities and poor rural areas are functioning regularly. Their numbers are constantly on the increase. The school buildings and their airy classrooms, not to speak of playgrounds, labs and libraries, would put to shame the cramped premises on which many so-called English medium private schools in Pakistan operate. The total number of children to benefit from TCF schools is well over a hundred thousand and 5,400 young and not-so-young female teachers are gainfully employed, not to speak of the support staff like the peons and the chowkidars, who too earn their living by working for TCF. The teachers in the far flung areas are provided with transport. I met a young teacher who goes in the school van from Thatta along with her colleagues to her school all the way in Keti Bunder in south Sindh.
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In the context of floods, one may add that after the 2005 earthquake that devastated parts of northern Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, TCF responding to the urgent needs of the people rendered homeless by the calamity, built shelters and houses for a large number.
Incidentally, one of the major donors was an American Hindu of Indian origin who gave $50,000 to the TCF USA earthquake fund. This leads us to the fact that while TCF makes no distinction on the basis of religion or ethnicity in providing education to students of poor families, its benefactors are also drawn from different communities in the US. Apart from Pakistani Americans, the donors include mainstream and immigrant Americans of all faiths – Christians, Jews and Hindus.
Uneza Akhtar, the General Manager of TCF USA, informs me that only 8 to 10 per cent of the funds raised are spent on administration and fundraising. Much of the work is done by volunteers. Thus 90 to 92 per cent goes to promoting education in Pakistan. Uneza said that the volunteers are extremely dedicated; even a relatively small Pakistani-American community such as Seattle has raised enough funds to build and operate four schools in Pakistan.
What amazes me most is that tax exempt status has been allotted to all TCF donors in the United States and, what is more, the concession came soon after 9/11. “That’s because we follow the guidelines set by the Treasury Department of the US government religiously. We also observe complete transparency in our handling of finances. We pay to have our books audited every year and our accounts are easily accessible on our website,” says Malik.
All one can say is well done Pakistani Americans who have built up TCF-USA from scratch. Also, full marks to non-Pakistani Americans, who contribute as much as 30 per cent to the funds raised by the non-profit. – asifnoorani2002@yahoo.com
(The writer, who jointly authored the bestselling ‘Tales of Two Cities’ with Kuldip Nayar and more recently compiled and created ‘Mehdi Hasan: The Man and his Music’ writes and lectures on art, literature and culture. He also pens travelogues and humorous pieces).
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