Zubair Qureshi
An expat Pakistani and co-founder of the Pakistan Women Club of New Jersey (PWCNJ) Ms Shumaila Khan, Monday, presented on behalf of the PWCNJ and its founder Ancer Batool warm clothes and stationery items to Master Ayub who is running an open air school in Sector F-6 for children, mostly orphans and kids of nearby slums.
Master Ayub has been providing free education to slum children since 1982 and his efforts to educate the less-privileged kids are recognized at home as well as internationally. The donations for ‘Master Ayub’s School’ included comforters, sweaters, jackets and stationery items that children of the poor families could use during the winter season.
While talking to Pakistan Observer on the occasion, Shumaila Khan said PWCNJ was a non-profit organization based in Paramus, New Jersey and is now engaged in different charity and social service initiatives.
A group of Pakistani women started this club five years ago with an aim to help the poor and the needy people of Pakistan, particularly, students, women, individuals and organizations engaged in charity work and social service in Pakistan.
With the help and funds collected from the Pakistani community of New Jersey and New York, PWCNJ has helped so far thousands of the needy and the poor families, said Shumaila Khan.
“Our initiatives include distribution of ration among the poor Pakistanis during the Ramazan. Besides Islamabad, we have launched similar initiatives in Lahore and Azad Kashmir,” she said.
For this winters, PWNCJ collected funds to buy comforters and sweaters to distribute in the major cities of Pakistan.
In Islamabad, the goods will be distributed among street children who are studying at Master Ayub’s park school.
She said PWCNJ was like a family for all Pakistanis of NJ and NY, and every year it conducted various social programmes to keep the community close knitted and runs food drives in New Jersey and New York too. PWCNJ’s aim is to help all the underprivileged in the United States and Pakistan.
Overseas Pakistanis are not only a source of immense pride for Pakistan, but also a continuous support. Earlier, Ms Khan presented the comforters and jackets to each student who was called by Master Ayub one by one to receive them.
Master Ayub while speaking high of Shumaila Khan, Ancer Batool and PWCNJ’s efforts said it was God-sent help for the children of his school as the winter season was in full bloom and these warm gifts would make their lives warmer and happier. Master Ayub said his mission was to empower slum children—boys and girls——with education and students passing out from his open air school had achieved success in life.
