Ongoing Projects
Feminine Hygiene Project
(Sehat-e Niswan)
Many young women in developing countries cannot afford disposable sanitary pads, forcing them to use unsanitary alternatives or go without any sanitary supplies all together. More than one-third of girls in South Asia miss at least a week of school every month during their period because they lack access to sanitary pads. Education about menstruation is lacking throughout the region as well. Many girls receive no education about menstruation before reaching puberty. Girls often turn towards their mothers or teachers for guidance, but very often they also lack proper information about feminine hygiene and perpetuate myths and taboos about menstruation.
PALS hopes to alleviate some of these challenges girls and women in low-income communities face by providing funds for the material, manufacturing, and distribution of reusable pads. Those who distribute the feminine hygiene kits are also educating girls on the proper use of these products as well as menstruation more broadly.
Launched in 2019, our feminine hygiene project is thriving: Nearly 5000 feminine hygiene kits have been distributed all over Punjab since April, 2019.
Our next goal is to take this project to the three other provinces. Along with hygiene kits, masks are also being distributed now for protection against the corona virus.
We have made a special effort to supply masks and soaps to marginalized communities like street sweepers and poor religious minorities.
Dr. Saba Chughtai distributing feminine hygiene kits in a school in Lahore, Pakistan (May, 2019)
Dr. Fatima Chughtai Khalid distributing feminine hygiene kits in Lahore, Pakistan (May, 2019)
Educating young girls about feminine hygiene in Lahore, Pakistan (May, 2019)
The LUMS National Outreach Program
In 2018, PALS sponsored a student for a scholarship through the National Outreach Program (NOP) of the Lahore University of Management Sciences. The NOP is a highly selective program that offers excellent academic opportunities to some of Pakistan’s brightest students who lack the financial resources to pursue a higher education.
Out sponsored student is in his fourth year. He is a law major and was placed on the Dean’s Honor List for the 2021 Spring Semester.
Recent Projects
2021
Support a Wing and Save Lives
Child Life Foundation
PALS has been working with Child Life Foundation (CLF) since 2017. PALS partnered with CLF in 2017 to sponsor a pediatric ER bed for one year in Civil Hospital, Karachi. Sponsoring an ER bed for one year pays for the treatment of 1500 children who rotate through the pediatric ER. In 2018, PALS donated a much needed phototherapy unit at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for CLF.
In 2021, PALS raised $50,000 to establish a five-bed unit in a newly renovated pediatric emergency room in the Mayo Hospital, Lahore. PALS is the first organization to help CLF initiate its work in Punjab.
The Children’s Emergency Room at Mayo Hospital, Lahore has created history by treating 50,000 children in the first five months since opening.
ChildLife Children's Emergency Room, Mayo Hospital, Lahore
2020
PALS Partnership with The Citizens Foundation to Fight The COVID-19 Pandemic
The Citizens Foundation (TCF) builds schools in the most impoverished communities of Pakistan. TCF is part of The Clinton Global Initiative and a Skoll Award winner for their outstanding work for promoting education in Pakistan. Families that send their children to TCF schools live in difficult economic conditions to begin with, and with the impact of the pandemic, these communities have been really struggling.
PALS has worked with The Citizens Foundation since 2014, when PALS started an endowment fund for their Educate a Child in Perpetuity Program. In 2015, PALS funded a complete computer lab at the TCF Mianwallii school.
PALS again partnered with TCF in 2020 to help people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of PALS’ fight against the current pandemic, PALS has donated funds through TCF to help these communities which primarily consist of day laborers, domestic workers, and khokha walla's many of whom lost their livelihood due to the pandemic.
Health workers in these communities lacked personal protective equipment. Our donation provided 150 sets of PPE to frontline health workers and paid for food, rent, and utilities for 150 TCF families residing in an extremely poor neighborhood of Quetta, Balochistan.
Dr. Saba Chughtai visiting The Citizens Foundation Dossa Campus School outside Lahore, Pakistan (April, 2016)
Dr. Saba Chughtai visiting The Citizens Foundation Dossa Campus School outside Lahore, Pakistan (April, 2016)
Takmil Project
The Takmil project is a unique initiative started by a group of Pakistanis living in Louisville, Kentucky. Takmil makes use of the most modern digital technology to provide education to children in Pakistan that have absolutely no access to schools. Each Takmil school is named after one of the 141 children killed in the 2014 Peshawar school shooting.
PALS is now partners with Takmil in sponsoring two such schools:
Shaheed Umar Hayat school in Mirpur Khas, Sindh
https://takmil.org/profile/shaheed-umer-hayat-school/Shaheed Ahmad School in Jafarabad, Balochistan
https://takmil.org/profile/shaheed-ahmad-school/
Shaheed Umer Hayat School students in Mirpur Khas, Pakistan
Shaheed Ahmad School students in Jafarabad, Pakistan
Past Projects
Pakistan
Domestic Violence Project - 2021
Feminine Hygiene Project - 2019, ongoing
Lahore University Of Management Sciences Partnership - 2018, ongoing
Child Life Foundation Partnership - 2017, 2018, 2021
Thar Clean Water Project - 2015
The Citizens Foundation Partnership - 2014, 2015
Bait ul Sukoon Cancer Hospital Partnership - 2014
The Human Development Foundation Partnership - 2013
The Ida Rieu School for The Deaf and Blind Partnership - 2013
Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital Partnership - 2013, 2015
Rathore Eye Hospital Partnership - 2012
The Hunar Foundation Partnership - 2012
United States
The Education Project Cincinnati - 2018
Women Walking West Partnership - 2018
Rahma Food Pantry Partnership - 2017
One City Against Heroin Partnership - 2017
Muslim Clinic Of Ohio Partnership - 2015
The Dragonfly Foundation Partnership - 2016
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Partnership - 2014
Free Store Food Bank Partnership - 2014
Mathew Ministries for Clean Water Partnership - 2014
Mason Food Pantry Partnership - 2013
Bridges for a Just Community Partnership - 2012