In January 2025, Tariq visited Pakistan to connect with our partners and recruit more organisations to join our network across the country. We are pleased that he was joined by Chair of trustees, Haroon Sheikh, and trustee, Hamza Sheikh, for part of his visit.

Pakistan holds a special place for us at the CareTech Foundation. One of our first three partnerships, signed in 2018, was to deliver the Pakistan Mental Health and Wellbeing programme in partnership with British Asian Trust. Since then we have continued to deepen our commitment by supporting others and launching our first flagship initiative, Pakistan Special Education Initiative (PSEI), there.

On a personal level, Tariq grew up in Pakistan and has leveraged his local knowledge and understanding to ensure the Foundation’s ambitions are reflected in the partnerships and programmes that our partners deliver. Following his appointment as Executive Director, Tariq wanted to ensure that our partners knew how committed we continued to be in the region and a visit was the most appropriate way to show this.

Karachi
Accompanied by Haroon and Hamza, COSARAF Director, Tashmina Hoque and Mariam Durrani, Senior Programme Manager of PSEI, Tariq first visited Fahmida Begum Foundation (FBF), one of the partner schools of PSEI, caring for 11 young people and their families with moderate to acute disabilities. The school runs a number of services for the people of Korangi, in particular:

• Clinic – Seeing over 36,000 patients annually, 60% of cases are as a result of contaminated water in the area
• School – Children are provided a competitive education so they do not become child labourers or forced to beg on the streets
• Vocational and community training – Members of the community are invited to workshops and sessions to inform them on areas of mental health, community building and income generation. Many young women are now earning a decent living selling goods they make in-house.

Having outgrown the use of its current facility, FBF is now in the process of constructing its own facility, Fahmida Begum Foundation Centre of Excellence and Empowerment. We sincerely thank Rukhsana Sheikh, Dr. Idrees and Talib for their hospitality.

The team then visited the new offices of its longest standing partner, British Asian Trust, to discuss ongoing interests, including the mental health programme and Milkar Campaign. Seven years on, we are proud of all that has been achieved in Pakistan. BAT has time and again delivered real impact on the ground and are currently training GPs, ensuring mental health support is as accessible as ever. With Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Foundation, Milkar is investing in changing the narrative around mental health forever and partners like Shaista Ayesha, CEO of SEED Ventures, Kamyla Marvi, Pakistan Director of BAT, and Shahrukh Hasan, Group Managing Director at Jang Media Group, make this possible.

The visit in Karachi concluded with a Roundtable of all local partners and Advisory Council members of PSEI. Hosted by PSEI partner school, Dawood Public School, the roundtable laid the groundwork for the Foundation’s ambitions moving forward. With Haroon’s support, Tariq noted what the market’s needs were:

• PSEI will continue to receive support from the Foundation and CareTech Ltd
• Cohort 2 will begin on-boarding in February and will expand beyond schools to include organisations delivering third party training like NOWPDP and ScienceFuse
• A membership model will be introduced to identify organisations that have undergone SEN training
• A Centre of Excellence will be introduced to address gaps in the market
• A self-sustaining model will be created to ensure PSEI continues its presence locally
• More in-country support will be provided by inviting CareTech Ltd experts to visit schools in Pakistan.

Lahore
Hosted by PSEI partner, The Noor Project, the team visited the school, vocational training centre and associated girl’s centre. Addressing the needs of nearby villages which face economic and social challenges, Noor is a shining beacon of hope as it invests in the future of everyone involved. It was heartening to see the quality of leadership, their passion and united purpose come through.

The school was a place of laughter and learning. The children, learning multiple languages from a very young age, showed confidence in their communication with the team. At the vocational centre, Boys classes were hosted in IT labs focussing on graphic design and computer literacy and the Girls classes were focussed on HomeEd, aesthetics and sewing. On completion of courses, teachers shared that graduates were given start-up loans at no-interest and introductions to local corporate partners to kickstart their careers. In many instances, they were earning up to $500/month through work with fashion designers and Amazon. For context, this is four times higher than the national minimum wage of Pakistan!

The girl’s centre, an orphanage for young girls under 14, was an emotional visit for all involved. When asked what they wanted to be when they were older, the responses included becoming doctors, fashion designers and joining the army to make the nation proud. The facility’s MD noted that they were all excelling in their education and were particularly good at sport, as can be seen by the medals they have won. We wish Noor the very best as it continues its expansion of this facility to welcome 80 more young women up to the age of 18 and completes the build of an eight-storey hospital, a real gamechanger for local communities.

Also part of the Lahore visit was a meeting with Family Education Services Foundation (FESF), who have excelled in supporting the deaf community of Pakistan through the provision of education and vocational training. A particular celebratory highlight of their recent success was the success of a local KFC entirely staffed by deaf staff. This KFC has now become one of the most successful franchises in the country. Also partnering with Deaf Reach are the Sapphire Group, Pakistan State Oil and the provincial governments.

Islamabad
In the last leg of the visit, the team ended their trip by meeting with READ Foundation’s leadership team. READ, one of Pakistan’s largest network of schools, tackles the education emergency through its 400 schools which support 14,000 orphans and 150,000 students. Tariq and Mariam met the team at their Head Office in Islamabad to explore synergies and shed further light on PSEI and how it could benefit READ. We were very pleased with the hospitality of the team and their openness in engaging with us. As READ operates schools in some of the country’s most isolated locations, their model is different to traditional schools but we are pleased to have agreed to continue discussions and work collaboratively together.

Mariam organised a visit for Tariq to Cottage Trust in Rawat, a school in a remote location that is currently running two facilities and building further due to local demand increasing. The impressive facility hosted vocational training for both men and women, education for children and an impressive sports programme to match. All teachers were educated up to MSc level, per the requirement of the Federal Government, and the entrepreneurship on display was impressive with income generation models in place to build sustainability. On the day, we were greeted by the school’s founder, Lt Gen Tariq Nadeem Gilani (Retd), took part in a certificate ceremony for the winners of the school’s spelling competition and, we are very pleased to confirm that the school has exchanged an MoU to be part of the second cohort on-boarding to PSEI.

Concluding the visit, Tariq and the team attended the Enterprise Challenge Pakistan finals at the British High Commission, organised by SEED Ventures and the King’s Trust International and hosted by the British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Jane Marriott CMG OBE. The event was brilliantly organised and showcased the best talent from across the country. Sponsors included COSARAF and Jubilee Life Insurance amongst other private sector leaders. The winners were Eco-EduTech from Daharki, whose business idea centred on using waste material to make learning materials for children with disabilities. Words cannot do justice to this group of young people, all with disabilities, and how well they performed in front of a large crowd. The Foundation was pleased to award a Community Grant to Eco-EduTech to cover transportation costs to the event. We wish all the teams the best and look forward to seeing their innovations become reality and take the market by storm.