Renowned sports celebrity and global charity leader of Pakistan, Shahid Afridi has said that empowering daughters of deprived families with quality education is a prerequisite for Pakistan’s development and progress.

Shahid Afridi, who is Chairman of the Shahid Afridi Foundation (SAF), stated this while speaking as the chief guest at Joint, mega Dinner of Shahid Afridi Foundation and Green Crescent Trust organised to kick off the joint campaign of the non-profits SAF and Green Crescent Trust (GCT) to provide quality school education to over 33,000, extremely deprived, out-of-school children. Eminent philanthropists, donors, and members of Karachi’s industrial and business fraternities attended the event and announced their overwhelming support for the SAF-GCT joint School education initiative to provide quality school education to children from deprived communities.

The dinner was hosted and supported by the leading businessman and philanthropist of Pakistan Farhan Hanif.

Afridi urged philanthropists and business community members to extend wholehearted support to charitable efforts focused on educating girls from underprivileged backgrounds. He said Pakistan’s development and progress would remain incomplete if girls from backward areas were left behind and not given access to quality school education. “These girls are future mothers whose proper education is necessary for the transformation of society, and I fully realise the importance of this cause because I have daughters,” said Afridi.

He mentioned that the SAF had partnered with the GCT eight years ago to strengthen its charitable mission of delivering quality education to children in remote and marginalised communities. With more than 25 million children in Pakistan, aged five to 16, out of school, Afridi emphasised that urgent enrolment drives are essential and must be undertaken by charities active in the education sector.

The SAF Chairman appealed to non-governmental organisations and charitable groups to expand their operations to remote and underdeveloped regions of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the security situation often poses challenges. He thanked the Pakistan’s security agencies for providing the SAF with security support to carry out its welfare activities in these difficult areas. He added that the SAF would continue to introduce mobile health units for deprived communities in far-flung regions.

Afridi informed the audience that the SAF would soon formally expand into the area of constructing housing facilities for homeless individuals in Sindh and Balochistan, where it has already built 350 homes.

He sincerely thanked the philanthropists and donors for their massive support for the SAF-GCT education programme for underprivileged communities.

GCT CEO Zahid Saeed,TI said that Pakistan’s economic challenges could only be overcome by imparting quality education to every child in the country.

He told the audience that, thanks to trusted partners and supporters like SAF and other leading donors from all over the Pakistan, the GCT has consistently pursued its mission over the past 31 years to deliver quality education to children from underserved areas in Sindh. He said that with the continued support of generous donors and patrons, the GCT has established a network of 170 charitable schools in remote and deprived parts of Sindh, enrolling a total of 32,800 children from deserving families. He added that the GCT aims to enrol 100,000 out-of-school children by expanding its school network to 250 institutions by the year 2030. He noted that three years back, for the first time, the GCT extended its educational mission beyond Sindh by opening a school in Winder, Hub District, and now plans to develop similar facilities for underprivileged communities in Balochistan and Punjab.

Renowned TV show host and famous comedian Shafaat Ali hosted the fundraising segment of the event and praised the exceptional generosity displayed by businessmen and industrialists in supporting the SAF-GCT education campaign. He also thanked Junaid Naqi, President of the Korangi Association of Trade & Industry, and renowned philanthropist M. Farhan Hanif for their support in organising the event.

Gen (retired) Amjad Khattak, the adviser to GCT also highly appreciated the countless efforts of Zahid Saeed, Shahid Afridi and donors.

Zahid Saeed, CEO, GCT also invited all the other prominent NGOs and celebrities to come forward and join hands with GCT like as Shahid Afridi and SAF for the quality school education and create a difference for Pakistan via joint School education projects. He told the donors that GCT is now gradually developing its utmost additional attention, on IT and technology based education, skills development, vocational training and short courses in all GCT schools.

GCT’s many state of the art school buildings are under construction in the remote areas for the underprivileged children and will be inaugurated well before December 2025, he added.

Zahid Saeed also informed the donors that GCT is audited by the top Global and Pakistani audit firms for the past 30 years and GCT has all the required official NOCs by the Government of Pakistan. GCT is shariah compliant, tax exempted and PCP certified and GCT’s all the donors have concrete Trust upon our school education program.