You can establish a fund or an organization in your or a family member's name to support a worthy cause or project in Pakistan.

This is a method known as Waqf (endowment) which has been the most important way to support welfare work over a period of time throughout centuries of Islam. Many of these Waqfs were founded by individuals through their own contributions, not governments. These contributions were not just given in the form of cash, but also of other kinds of property, including land, a business or a building. Muslims in America, especially Pakistani-Americans, have not adopted this concept as a whole. It is one well worth looking into.

Through your Waqf fund, you can support existing programs of organizations working in Pakistan. For instance, you can help build a check dam in an arid area of Pakistan. This project costs as little as $10,000 (provide link). You can also support a micro-credit program (provide link) which allows individuals to start their own enterprises.

Here's another example: let's say your deceased mother had a strong passion for educating the girls of her family. In that case, you can establish a trust fund in her name to fund a scholarship for the top five female students at your mother's high school in Pakistan every year.

With this fund, you are doing something tangible to support your mother's memory for a cause that she herself would have supported.

To get this project off the ground, you'll have to first decide which organization you want to establish the trust fund with, whether it's a school, charitable organization, or relief agency.

Working with an established organization affords many advantages. You can support a group that's already doing good work and you don't have to worry about organizational and management issues as you would if you were establishing your own organization.
You would just endorse, support and monitor a program.

A second option is to suggest that the organization establish a program that encourages skill development, so those recipients are not always dependent on charity. In other words instead of giving them fish, as the expression goes, you teach them how to fish so they can support themselves.

For instance, you can establish a sewing program for widows in Pakistan through your chosen organization. This is considered a very good way for women to earn money to support their families in a respectable manner in Pakistan. In addition, it uses skills that many women in Pakistan, especially in rural areas already have.

So what you're doing is diverting the organization's resources and giving your own to support a more beneficial project for those who are on the receiving end of charity.

Another way of supporting the work of an organization is through seed funding. In other words, let's say there's a new organization that's being set up for a worthy cause (i.e. a battered women's shelter). You can provide the initial funds necessary to establish this project and then let it take off on its own.

You may decide that there is no organization out there which is adequately addressing the needs of the underprivileged in Pakistan. In that case, feel free to establish your own. Don't think this is causing disunity within the Pakistani community. The goal is common to everyone: to help Pakistanis in need and to develop the country in concrete ways.

Establishing a fund is a concrete way of using your money for things which are important to you, and give you more control over how your funds are utilized.

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/17/2002 3:49:08 PM

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