“And they feed, for the love of Allah, the poor, the orphan, and the captive…” [Soorah al-Insaan, 8]
Devotion – for sustainable development is a civil society organization endeavoring to help the marginalized and the deprived to become an effective and productive part of the society. Our efforts are directed to bring the downtrodden to the mainstream of society. Education, Health and Human Resource Development remain our priority areas as we believe that for a productive and progressive society it is necessary that its people are educated, healthy and skilled. Devotion’s focus has been empowering the marginalized through developmental activities in these areas.
Orphans are always at the top of the list amongst the marginalized all over the world. Children who loose their parents at an early age not only get deprived of the parental affection and love but they, most of the times, struggle for every thing they need to grow up and survive. It is a fact that almost every 30 seconds 2 children become orphans. There are more than 100 millions orphans worldwide and unfortunately an estimated 65 million orphans live in Asia alone. It is hard to grasp such large numbers, but if you had just the Asian orphans hold hands in a line, the line would go around the entire earth. If you were to follow that line of orphans holding hands, driving 60 mph, passing 1700 children per minute, you could drive 24 hours a day, mile after mile, hour after hour, day after day, nonstop, for over 17 days, and you would still see orphans holding hands.
Pakistan, as a developing country, does not have sufficient facilities to cater the needs of this largest section of the deprived. A fewer than the few efforts are evident from the day to day declining conditions of orphans and destitute children.
AASHIANA
(A SAFE HOME FOR ORPHANS AND DESTITUTE CHILDREN)
Devotion, having served more than 100 orphans through its “Financial Assistance Programme” is now planning to establish a Safe Home for Orphans and Destitute Children. The project is named “AASHIANA” and the concept of this project is to provide a safe home to the orphans and destitute children equipped with all kinds of modern facilities that a normal child enjoys in our society. We intend to start from a very small scale effort of taking care of 20-25 orphans coming from any part of the country without any discrimination of religion, race or sect. The first AASHIANA shall be in Rawalpindi or Islamabad, however, we hope to replicate this project in as many parts of the country as we could.
Project Brief:
In first year of this project we aim to establish a residential facility for 20-25 children with good in-house facilities and staff for their care. We believe in educating these children in the mainstream educational systems so that they do not feel segmented as being educated as a group of orphans. The implementation of project is divided into three phases;
- Fund Raising Phase
- Establishment
- Operational
In the first phase, individuals as well as group sources including philanthropists, corporate donors, and donor agencies shall be contacted for raising funds for establishment and operations of this project.
Once sufficient financial resources are gathered, AASHIANA shall be established in a rented building with all in-house facilities and staffing. This shall include hiring of building, furnishing it, acquisition of other accessories, hiring of staff and admission of children.
Third phase is basically about ‘how AASHIANA’ would be run for first one year. Again, people from different walks of life shall be requested to support the day to day running costs of the project where the facilities provided to children shall include;
- Secure and safe residential place
- Quality Food and refreshments
- Care taking staff (Supervised by the management)
- Clothing and other personal accessories
- Education in mainstream schools
- Physical and mental health care + Medical Treatment
- Sports and recreational opportunities
- An in-house computer Lab. etc.
Devotion believes in participatory approach in developmental and welfare activities. We believe in community ownership of these activities and thus our plans include enabling maximum involvement of local individuals and families to join hands with Devotion in sustaining this project after one year and establishing many more units like AASHIANA.
Estimated Cost (One Year Plan)
APPEAL FOR DONATIONS
Devotion’s aim is to serve the humanity in need and in this journey our next milestone is AASHIANA. We request every one, who has been blessed by the ALMIGHTY, to contribute as much as you can and SHARE TO CARE the orphans. May ALLAH Soften our hearts as His beloved Prophet said;
“I and the caretaker of the orphan will enter Paradise together like this, (raising, by way of illustration his forefinger and middle finger, jointly leaving no space in between).” [Saheeh al-Bukhaari]
And
A man once came to the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu`alaihiwasallam, and complained that he feels hardness in his heart. The Messenger of Allah said, what translated means, “Would you like that your heart becomes soft and that you acquire what you need? Be merciful with the orphan, pat his head and feed him from what you eat. This will soften your heart, and enable you to get what you need.” [At-Tabaraanee & As-Silsilah as-Saheehah]
So let’s join hands for a noble cause as ALLAH says in Quran
“And whatsoever you spend of anything (in the cause of Allah), He will replace it. He is the Best of those who grants sustenance.” [Soorah Saba‘ 34:39]