Yasmin Nigar, is an educationist and social activist from Pakistan. She is the owner of School of Britannica, a place built specifically for girls whose parents cannot afford or think of providing quality education to their daughters.

Watch Mrs Nigar tell you how she used to knock on every door in her neighborhood and convince the people there to educate their daughters. She also takes care of kids from flood affected areas, without any government assistance.

While initially the assistance for these people included rations, they have now been asked to find work, and the women and some men have been provided loans on a payable when able basis to sell water or tea at the nearby sabzi Mandi, or sell small towels etc at the gas stations on the highway, while the women were given bangles and mehndi etc to sell.

The main thrust for Mrs. Nigar is to see that the children do not loiter about and get into bad company, whilst commuting between the school and their homes. As a result Mrs Nigar has been personally transporting as many children as her Suzuki HiRoof can accommodate.

SA Relief has agreed, as part of our continued support to provide $1.500 (Rs 133,500) for three months to cover the cost fuel, driver’s salary, and also provide warm clothing to children and elderly folks. In exchange Mrs Yasmin Nigar has agreed to furnish SA Relief with a monthly status report that would include detailed accounting of the funds. Earlier on October 16, 2011 we handed Mrs Yasmin Nigar a check for Rs 120,000 (approximately $1,348).

Mrs Yasmin Nigar informs us  that about $340/month (approximately Rs. 30,000/month) would cover these expenses and has requested long term commitments from prospective donors. Other than that there are recurring expenses for meals for the children, books, uniforms and stationary items. For information on donating to this cause email pkfloods@sarelief.com

Following is a documentary on Mrs Yasmin Nigar and her work:

SA Relief, a DBA operating under Paksef (Pakistan Science and Engineering Foundation) is a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible non-profit Corporation registered in California, U.S.A.

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1) Abdul Sattar Ishaqani and Nishat wellfare organization combined with us to bring relief in the form of 500 ration hampers as well as medicines and a medical camp to the area of Sanghar. Pictures of this undertaking are available here

2) Hamid Yahya and his team from CFC took their team to sanghar and we supported them with 300 ration hampers, 450 litres of water and medicines. Pictures of this undertaking are available here

3) Alhuda’s team went to Sujawal and we supplied them anti malaria medicine for 400 patients.

4) We started a Kitchen In Khorwah, about an hours drive from badin with the help of our team member Salim Khan to bring cooked meals of Water and beef to 750 people daily. This kitchen has been working all of last week and pictures of our cooked meal distribution are available here.

5) We have also received a donation for 10,000 fruit juice packs and have sent half of these to badin already, they will arrive and be distributed tomorrow.

Initiatives to come

• We plan to continue our kitchen in Khorwah for the next ten days, we are also trying to increase the size of the people served from 750 daily to 1500
• We have acquired 1000 malaria nets (self standing) and will distribute them in different areas
• We are in touch with LRBT through Afia Salam and plan to provide eye treatment to the host of families that have arrived on the highway in Karachi
• We are in touch with rangers to liaison with and provide relief in the shape of ready to eat meals to places where we as a relief team cannot reach personally or through our contacts.
• We are planning and will organize a medical camp as soon as we get adequate supplies of medicine and doctors..currently medicines are in really short supply due to hoarding.

As you have probably noticed , our focus in on immediate relief right now. This is because there are according to conservative estimates more than 8 million people on the roads od Sindh right now. So the real desperate need is of cooked food, water, juice, rations, anti malaria and malaria preventive medicine, mosquito nets and so on.  Rehabilitation plans will come later, first we need to ensure that these people do not die of hunger or sickness.

We at Sarelief do not believe in waiting for the right time to distribute aid, we believe every moment is precious and thus try to get aid to the ground as fast as possible and through partnering with any reliable organization. We also do NOT charge fuel expenses, travelling expenses, food lodging or any other kind of administrative overheads thus insuring that every single penny of your aid gets to the needy, not some percentage of it.

We appeal to every single one of you to help our pakistani brethren out of this tragedy, whether it is by donating to us or to any other reliable organization on the ground!!

We thank all our donors for the support they have given us, god bless all of you wherever you are!!

Pk relief is the hashtag (#pkrelief) we use on social media to categorize all the work being done by us and our partners on the ground in the 2011 rain disaster in Pakistan.

To Donate please click here.

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There is still tremendous work to be done, team PkRelief which is a conglomerate between SA Relief and OffRoad Pakistan (click for more information) requires your support to continue it’s humanitarian missions. We encourage you to donate monetarily or inkind by volunteering your time or contributing relief goods.

Inkind donations email: pkfloods@sarelief.com

Monetary donations can be made one of two ways:

All major credit cards accepted and processed through PayPal

Funds are being collected by Paksef (Pakistan Science and Engineering Foundation) which is a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible non-profit Corporation in California. SA Relief operates under Paksef.

Local Pakistan residents can donate via Bank Al Habib
Account#: 1078-0081-001670-01-4
Branch Code: 1078
Contact Person: Faisal Kapadia (pkfloods@sarelief.com)

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We invite you to HELP Us, HELP the 1.4 Million flood victims. Please Chip-in however much you can.

All major credit cards accepted and processed through PayPal

Funds are being collected by Paksef (Pakistan Science and Engineering Foundation) which is a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible non-profit Corporation in California. SA Relief operates under Paksef.

Local Pakistan residents can donate via Bank Al Habib
Account#: 1078-0081-001670-01-4
Branch Code: 1078
Contact Person: Faisal Kapadia (pkfloods@sarelief.com)

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]]> http://www.sarelief.com/2011/08/aug28missionbadin/feed/ 0 http://www.sarelief.com/2011/08/bwb/ http://www.sarelief.com/2011/08/bwb/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:29:55 +0000 admin http://www.sarelief.com/?p=620 Buddies Without Borders and SA Relief Join Hands to Raise Funds.

Fundraiser for thousands affected by August 2011 floods in Pakistan

Buddies Without Borders will be selling Pakistan Flood Relief wristbands at the Chaand Raat festival on Monday  August 29th at Mehran Restaurant  in Fremont, California. Donations will be going to SA Relief to support Flood Relief 2011 – Mission Badin.

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]]> http://www.sarelief.com/2011/08/bwb/feed/ 0 http://www.sarelief.com/2011/08/pkfloods2011/ http://www.sarelief.com/2011/08/pkfloods2011/#comments Tue, 16 Aug 2011 06:40:52 +0000 admin http://www.sarelief.com/?p=570

The recent rains have caused tremendous damage in the southern Pakistan region of Badin (Sindh) and Balochistan.  NDMA estimates over 8,788,000 people have been displaced damaging over 6.5 million acres of land. These floods have caused 1.4 million homes to have been devastated, dislocating over 750,000 people into makeshift relief camp while thousands more remain in the open without a roof . Hundreds of villages were swept away due to flooding from a 200 foot wide gap in the salinity drain there. The Pakistan Army has launched a relief operation in Sindh and are attempting to shift these people into makeshift camps

Upon hearing of the situation PkRelief, an organization based on the partnership between the Offroad Pakistan and SA Relief went into full action by reaching out to the local community and infrastructure to determine what is needed. As an organization we have worked on several  relief efforts since 2005 and have a strong local contact base. In 2010 alone our organization collected and distributed relief valuing well over 170,000 USD for the flood relief efforts.

Presently we have adopted 3 camps in Badin, Sindh with the support of Nishat Welfare Organization whom have already housed 1,000  IDPs. Our plan initially is to provide the IDPs with cooked meals for the next 15 days.

Please donate generously. Thank you for your support. Every dollar counts.

For further information please email Dr Awab Alvi, Faisal Kapadia, Abdulrahman Rafiq, or Sabahat Ashraf at  pkfloods@sarelief.com.

TOTAL FUNDS RAISED by SA Relief

Funds are being collected by Paksef (Pakistan Science and Engineering Foundation) which is a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible non-profit Corporation in California. SA Relief operates under Paksef.

Local Pakistan residents can donate via our local Bank:

Bank: Bank Al Habib
Account#: 1078-0081-001670-01-4
Account Title: Abdul Rahim
Branch Code: 1078
Contact Person: Email PKRelief at pkfloods@sarelief.com

For mission updates click here

Endorsed by:  Pakistan Embassy in Washignton DC

 

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]]> http://www.sarelief.com/2011/08/pkfloods2011/feed/ 19 http://www.sarelief.com/2010/12/starsforhope/ http://www.sarelief.com/2010/12/starsforhope/#comments Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:51:02 +0000 admin http://www.sarelief.com/?p=536 Calling all Glee fans, Daily Show viewers, and Star Trek diehards alike! Come join OPEN Chicago and leaders of the Pakistani-American community at the Pakistan Flood relief celebrity fundraiser.

The event will take place on Sunday, January 16, 2011 and will feature actor Faran Tahir (Iron Man, Star Trek, Charlie Wilson’s War), Aasif Mandvi from The Daily Show, and Iqbal Theba from the acclaimed Fox TV show Glee. Acclaimed dessert chef Malika Ameen of By M Desserts and a Top Chef Desserts contestant will be in attendance.

Mark your calendars and tell your friends, your family, and your family’s friends to come join the effort to raise funds for the ongoing Pakistan flood relief effort. Trust us, this is something you won’t want to miss!

Sunday, January 16, 2011 | 12 pm – 3 p.m.
Carnivale, 702 W. Fulton, Chicago, Illinois

Event Host:

Event Partners:

Partnering Charities:

For registration and additional information visit:

www.StarsforHope.org

The featured stars:

Faran Tahir	Faran Tahir was born in Los Angeles while his parents were studying acting and directing at UCLA Theatre Dept. He comes from a theatre family well-known in Pakistan and India. Both his parents are actors/directors/writers in Pakistan. Faran moved to Los Angeles in 1980, when he was 17 years old. He completed his B.A. from University of California, Berkeley and his graduate degree from the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard. He has been nominated and has won many awards for his work in theatre and film. Most recently Faran played a lead role in the film Star Trek Nemesis
Malika Ameen	Born and raised in the Chicago area, Malika Ameen’s cooking inspiration comes from two things: ingredients and people. She believes that beautiful, delicious food brings people together. She is also passionate about traveling, as it often opens her eyes to new ingredients, techniques and flavor combinations. A single mother of three boys, Malika is always incorporating her “chef thinking” into the foods she cooks daily for her children, in order to “open up their palates and make eating as exciting for them as it is for me.” The five ingredients she keeps on hand at all times are candied citrus, dried lavender, vanilla bean sugar, green cardamom pods and bittersweet chocolate.
Aasif Mandvi	Aasif Mandvi began performing at the age of seven as a pixie in a school play wearing tights and a bonnet. He knew from that moment on that discreet but comfortable leggings coupled with a desperate need for attention was the secret of success. Unaware of this at the time, but this type of beginning was perfect for a job as a correspondent on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” where the official uniform ironically happens to be “tights and a bonnet” ( worn discreetly under one’s suit, of course). Aasif made his first appearance as contributor on August 9, 2006. He is the recipient of the OBIE award for his critically-acclaimed one-man show “Sakina’s Restaurant.” Other New York stage credits include the 2002 Broadway revival of “OKLAHOMA!,” “Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom,” “Homebody/Kabul,” “Suburbia,” “Trudy Blue,” and “Speak Truth to Power.” Film and television credits include; “The Proposal,” “Ghost Town,” “Music and Lyrics,” “Spider-Man 2,” “The Siege,” “Analyze This,” “The Mystic Masseur,” “ABCD,” “American Chai,” “Sex and the City,” “Sleeper Cell,” “The Sopranos,” “Jericho,” “Oz,” “CSI,” “Law and Order,” and “E.R.” He will soon be seen in the upcoming features “The Last Airbender” and “Today’s Special.” Aasif’s journalistic integrity has never been questioned, and for that he is eternally grateful.
Iqbal Theba	Born in Karachi, Pakistan on December 20, 1963. Started college as a Freshman at the University of Oklahoma in 1981. Studied Civil Engineering at first and has a BS in Construction Engineering Management. Went back to the University of Oklahoma in 1986 and majored in Acting. Was the first South Asian to have appeared in dozens of mainstream national commercials in the 90s. Went to the University of Oklahoma in Norman and is a Sooner Football fan. He arrived in Los Angeles with 37 dollars in his pocket. He stayed with his friend Mujahid Bashir for three months in San Bernardino until he earned enough money from waiting tables and found a place to live in Los Angeles. During his Freshman year in college he was a dishwasher at The Street Restaurant in Norman, Oklahoma. He was promoted to be a cook after a couple of months of washing dishes. The restaurant closed a year later. Left college in 1989 and moved to New York to pursue acting. In NYC he stayed with his childhood friend Tariq Agha until he found a place of his own. Did a few non-paying acting gigs and worked as a waiter. Went broke in early 1991 and decided to leave NYC for Los Angeles. He stopped in Norman, OK for two days because he was almost out of money. He worked at Misal Restaurant for one shift and made 60 bucks. His best friend Akbar Sultan gave him 50 dollars. He finally arrived in San Bernardino with only 37 dollars. He did not know anyone in Los Angeles so he had to stay in San Bernardino with a friend until he had saved enough money (from waiting tables) and moved to LA in March 1991. He was one of 13 student actors who auditioned for summer stock theatre in college. 12 were picked. He was the only one who was left out.

Registration:

VVIP Package: $500 + $12 processing fee (limited Quantity) Private dinner with celebrity guests on Saturday, January, 15, 2010 Red Carpet Access to Live Auction Premium items Lunch and Show Tax deductible
VIP Package: $250 + $7 processing fee Red Carpet Access to Live Auction Premium items Lunch and Show Tax deductible
General Package: $150 + $5 processing Lunch and Show Live Auction
Special Package: $75 + $5 Processing fee
General Donation: Any amount

Online donations, sponsorship dollars, and tickets $250 and above are being collected by PAKISTAN SCIENCE & ENGINEERING FOUNDATION, a 501(c)(3) non-profit tax-exempt corporation registered in California. Tax-ID # 20-2950808. For info about Pakistan Science and Engineering Foundation, please contact Abdulrahman Rafiq at info@sarelief.com. SA Relief is a disaster coordination and relief unit operating under Paksef.

All other dollars are being collected by OPEN Chicago. OPEN Chicago is registered in Illinois as a 501(c)(6), Tax-ID # 26-3812805. For more info contact Ruma Samdani at OPEN Chicago, please visit http://www.open-chicago.org/.

All tax-deductible proceeds will be donated to Karachi Relief Trust and OXFAM America. For more information about the charities click here.

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