Scholarships for Intelligent but Needy Students

Society for Human Development has managed to raise more than $31,500 over the past two and half years through GlobalGiving with your generous support. With this fund , SHD has reached out to nearly 700 students , belonging to all categories and supporting them to continue their education.

During the past quarter , Pakistan was badly hit by COVID-19 and the crises which was brought by it. The lock down by the Government to save people from the COVID-19 outbreak, took place in March , 2020 and led to the closure of all major businesses in the country. The schools , colleges and universities got closed for an unannounced period. Majority of the lower income class (nearly 40% population) lost their jobs which also included the parents of the majority of the students who were benefitted by SHD in Toba Tek Singh through scholarships and sewing centers.

SHD was in a unique situation as both of its projects (funded by GlobalGiving) were affected and all movement of the beneficiaries and staff was restricted seriously. The families of the students (of both of our projects) got seriously affected by the lockdown and it was really hard to see them starving,  hence SHD decided to give food rations and sanitisers to the families of students and sewing center girls and women. This was a major disaster SHD had to respond.

SHD has managed to provide 10 days food ration to more than 500 families . Overall contribution of the beneficiaries was very appreciative. During the distribution , the families provided the labour services which included loading and unloading of the food packages to/from the trucks. The beneficiaries also helped in making all possible arrangements and helped people receive the food items in a disciplined way, taking all precautionary measures.

After the distribution , a beneficiary expressed her views to the team

“My name is Shazia. I was very excited because every day I was allowed to go to the Sewing Center. Every Sunday,  we were going to Church. Then came this Covid 19. We got stuck at home in a very small room. We have no place to move in the house. Nobody can go to do daily wage work. We had nothing to eat. Then came SHD staff members with food rations. What a joy it was for us as we managed to have two meals every day for about ten days. The lock down ended and my father went to work in the fields again and with that we were able to get food”.