The UAE’s Big Heart Foundation has pledged more than $1 million to build schools and training centres in Pakistan. The grant follows a visit by Sheikha Jawaher Al Qasimi, wife of the Ruler of Sharjah and chairwoman of The Big Heart Foundation, to Pakistan in February where she met humanitarian organisations. The Foundation has allocated $580,000 for the construction of an SOS Girls and Boys High School in Pakistan’s Rawalakot city. The school is expected to be ready by July 2022. Another $80,000 has been allocated to build computer labs for 450 children in different cities. In June, a grant of $170,000 was given for the construction of a primary school in Pakistan’s Sindh province. This will help in educating 180 marginalised children every year. The Foundation will also help to upgrade equipment at the Women Welfare Development Centre in Islamabad and three community development centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The initiative will support 1,500 Afghan refugee women. It will cost more than $200,000 and the centres will be ready in December 2021. Another $61,000 will be spent to develop a new community centre project in Haripur, where 1,000 Afghan refugees will be trained.
