Sindh — An Indian Businessman based in Dubai funded 62 water hand-pumps in Pakistan’s poverty-striken Tharparkar district of Sindh province, and he also sent bags of grains when he came to know about the plight of the people through social media posts.
Joginer Singh Salaria, who hails from Gurdaspur of Punjab province of India, has been a UAE-resident since 1993 and runs a transport business. He formed Pehal Charitable Trust to carryout social work irrespective of national borders. He reached out to social workers in Pakistan via social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube, and funded the entire operation.
“While India-Pakistan tensions were high following the Pulwama incident, we were installing hand pumps in these poor villages,” Mr. Salaria was quoted as saying by the Khaleej Times.
Tensions between India and Pakistan surged when 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a suicide mission carried by Jaish’s terrorist on February 14 in Pulwama district of Kashmir.
India responded by launching air strikes across the Line of Control and destroyed terror camps in Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
However, during the tensions Mr. Salaria did intense research on the condition of the people of Tharparkar and coordinated with Bheal Khangar, a social worker, for the entire project.
“There are very few roads in the villages. The nearest hospital is 50 km away, and people need to walk 25 km to reach the main road. Schools are also very bad in those areas. Most children can’t go to school due to lack of opportunities, lack of easy access to school and lack of schools,” he said.
Accrording to the Khaleej Times quoted a United National Development Programme report as saying that Tharparkar district has some of the lowest social and development indicators in Sindh province and across Pakistan with poverty head count of 87 per cent.
Image courtesy: fb.com/jslaria
