- Ahbab Welfare Trust supporting people who can help economy
- The Trust is giving Zakat to only eligible people
Interview with Muhammad Asif — Co-founder of Ahbab Welfare Trust
PAGE: Tell me something about yourself and Ahbab Welfare Trust, please:
Muhammad Asif:Â I am co-founder of Ahbab Welfare Trust. I have been associated with the field of accountancy and finance for almost 20 years working as a head of finance. During this period I worked in many companies, most of which are related to NPO health sector which gave me the opportunity to closely observe the healthcare sector, therefore I have gone through many cases that really hurt me and gave vision for this noble cause.
The purpose of this Trust is to support and build under privileged society.
We support in different segments such as:
- Support in monthly school fee, courses, and uniform etc.
- Support in healthcare facility and medicines
- Support the poor parents’ who cannot afford to get their daughters married and provide marriage assistance funds.
- Rashaan bags have been distributed for zakat eligible families.
- Support flood affected people.
- Arrange discounted Rashaan and meat camps, and bachat bazar on monthly basis for relief of white-collar peoples.
We need to develop society in a manner that people understand the requirements of white-collar people.
The message is being conveyed to the society and it has been seen that now many of the welfares are working in the same manner for this cause.
PAGE: Charity is a central tenet of Islam, which lays great emphasis on supporting the needy and the poor. What is your perspective about it?
Muhammad Asif:Â Our religion gives lesson on helping others and supporting the people and the same is our intention, so we have started to support and help the people in under privileged areas mainly white collars who do not beg as you know most of the beggars are professional and they are hitting the white-collar people and they are holding the money received.
So, we are not giving free but offering the subsidized rates that may indirectly support in their budget. We recommend to donors to critically look after and examine; your amount should reach in safe hands. If we talk about economics, beggars reserve the amount and don’t utilize economically. If they utilize the amount it would help the economy.
PAGE: Could you tell me about the monetary requirements of this Trust over the course of next one year?
Muhammad Asif: They are many segments that require attention for working. We have started Rashaan camp & store. It is supporting in income of the people. We need to create the jobs under the supervision so that right and needy persons can take this opportunity, so we are also working to add the business value through this platform and create business opportunities and jobs as well. We need the funds to meet this deadline.
We have opened the Ahbab Welfare Store and adding values in the business cycle. We are encouraging the home-based workers. We purchase garam masala (hot spices) and other related manually packed items from widows to increase their business. These types of workers should be encouraged to enhance the business. We have different strategies in our target for next year that we will go for backward and forward integration such as creating part time jobs for low-salaried people. It will help to increase the per capita.
PAGE: Could you tell us about donation and Zakat received by your Trust? How do you finance the welfare activities?
Muhammad Asif: We are using our best of the resources to arrange the donations and Zakat. Donation is the white money. It can be used for everyone. It enables us to support to reduce the prices of the products, so after having the funds from the donors, we reduce the price of the products such as wheat, rice, maize, oil, sugar, and ghee etc. With regards to Zakat, we evaluate the person whether he/she is eligible or not. It is critical phase to identify under these circumstances so we scrutinised the people and then issue the Rashaan, medical aid, and educational support. We don’t use Zakat amount in Welfare activities except issuing the Zakat Rashaan to the eligible persons.
PAGE: How are charitable organizations being helped by the government?
Muhammad Asif: Unfortunately, as of today, we have not been supported by the government. It would come to your knowledge that government had issued cheap flour so as an NPO people have contacted us for flour because there was no any schedule issued by the government that when did the flour reach in which area. It was really difficult for people to avail this benefit therefore, considering the situation we have written the letter to commissioner but unfortunately, we have not got any response neither they contacted us. Government should liaise and register the NPOs. They should evaluate us as well.
PAGE: Could you elaborate on the future activities of the Trust?
Muhammad Asif:Â We need to establish the trust and love among the people and make society stronger. We all should release the current requirements by adding the courses for the people.
We need to make the underprivileged people strong to help contribute in the Pakistan economy. We are focusing to create jobs and businesses in local products markets. Free medical camp is also one of the activities to add in our plan. Basically, there are many routine life aspects we need to capture so that we could work as a team not as individuals.