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Making Philanthropy Work

US Billionaire Ted Turner, best known for (1) creating CNN (2) winning the America Cup and (3) marrying actress-turned peace-activist Jane Fonda, went one better the other day. On a visit to the United Nations (UN), he announced a personal donation of US$ 1 billion (US$ 100 million for 10 years) for UN sponsored socio-economic projects. Having increased his approximate wealth from US$ 2.2 billion to US$ 3.2 billion, mainly because of the rise of Time-Warner stock, the multimedia company of which he is now Vice Chairman, Turner felt an urgent need to do something constructive for the world’s poor. By this dramatic initiative he put the world’s rich on notice that they have a moral and social obligation towards the “not so fortunate”. By channelling his largesse through the UN, he has tried to instill a modicum of fairness in its distribution since the UN’s socio-economic agencies generally allocate their resources in an equitable manner to alleviate the sufferings of the poverty-stricken population of the poorer nations i.e. if they are not throwing money at special projects of no real relevance.

While we in Pakistan have the least percentage of population in South Asia below the poverty line, a significant number still do not have proper housing, potable drinking water, electricity, sewerage, education, transportation, health, hygiene and sanitation, etc. On the other hand, a significant number of our population have been blessed with enough material wealth that they should seriously contemplate the sharing of that largesse, particularly in the near vicinity of their immediate communities, so that a direct relationship remains between philanthropy and achievement. The “adequately rich” can be classified as “urban” and “rural” residents. As the projected census in October will probably show, the urban population has taken over in numbers from the rural. In Pakistan we have a tendency not to pay our taxes and yet expect the government to provide all the socio-economic facilities that people living in western countries accept as a matter of routine but third world-ers arriving in the 21st century perceive it as a bonus to their living.

There are distinct ways to alleviate the suffering for the poor viz (1) to give them money directly and thus the means thereof to look after themselves (2) deliver the required items in kind (3) create the institutions needed to care for their needs i.e. schools, water treatment plants, sewerage schemes, etc and (4) create jobs, thus allowing them to earn their own living. Experience has shown that even during emergencies such as disaster relief, etc, cash money should rarely be an option, since most likely this will not be used for disaster alleviation but for other purposes. Rations and necessary commodities delivered in kind are much more useful, though it is a fact that the distribution agencies mainly government, manage to skim off a significant part. Invariably, philanthropy has focused on delivering items in kind such as dry-rations, drinking water, tents, blankets, medicine, etc. However, it is far better to create institutions and jobs. The creation of institution requires money, very few individuals can spare that kind of money but more than money, it requires constant monitoring and active management. Similarly job creation is the highest level of philanthropy, by opening up employment opportunities you add a force-multiplier to the ability of the individual to look after his/her own family and making both direct/indirect contribution to the economy.

For Pakistan there is nothing more important than the affluent realizing their social and moral obligations that stem from our religious obligations as Muslims. Recently, a friend of mine Javed Amin along with Salim Ahmad, Jalil Tareen, Shahid Siddiqui and Humayun Qutab as well as their better halves Ms Talat, Dolly, Asiya and Nasreen, Humayun’s spouse being away, decided to get together and invite people, mostly friends and neighbours from the community where we live, to a 50th Birthday celebration for Pakistan. Fully 350 plus people turned up, 150 more than invited. While patriotism was very much visible in abundance, what was really satisfying was the way the whole private sector initiative was conducted, with informality and enthusiastic participation. The hosts and hostesses had slaved through the last few days upto Aug 14 to get things ready, this was way much in evidence in the cohesive and spontaneous participation. Motivated by the response Javed Amin invited a core group a few days later to think about the possibility of establishing a pilot primary school in a neighbouring Katchi Abadi (temporary inhabitation), not only to fund such a venture but to manage it. While the enthusiasm was very much there, the very real world of routine seemed to deter active participation. While Javed will eventually probably manage to establish an education unit, he is finding it difficult to re-capture the spontaneity that came with “the spirit of Aug 14”. The patriotism has not waned but a combination of lack of focus, lack of communication, lack of knowledge, etc makes such enthusiasm usually peter out in confusion. People want to help the under-privileged but fail because of a lack of coordinated effort. Knowing that the UN agencies are notorious for mishandling funds, for top-heavy administration, etc, yet Ted Turner is channelling his funds through the UN because even with all its shortcomings this still remains the most even-handed world agency that has organisations in various sectors devoted to social welfare and poverty alleviation besides many more socio-economic initiatives.

In the effort to alleviating the vicissitudes facing the poor, we cannot leave it only to the government to solve all of life’s problems. Charity is an enshrined Islamic principle and charity begins at home. Many Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have done excellent work but philanthropy has to be organised on a total country-basis to be effective. To ensure that the aims and objectives of philanthropy are met, the flow of funds coordinated in a systematic manner. What we need is to appoint Consultants who will (1) identify locations and the need i.e. whether these should be a school, health unit/population planning, provision of potable water, sewerage, male/female vocational training school, etc or a combination thereof (2) prepare standard outline plans/drawings in such a manner as to be adaptable to the geographical environment of the area and (3) determine the cost of project construction, annual management. The local affluent must be encouraged to adopt this Project. An organization called HELPLINE in Karachi takes out large advertising in newspapers requesting citizens to “adopt a school”, they send faxes to concerned citizens in order to involve them in some manner. Dr. Naseem Salahuddin, a very renowned medical specialist, has spent 12 years developing 15 schools for the Children Educational Development Fund (CEDF) in which a number of concerned citizens (including my wife) give their voluntary time to monitoring the education of children in localities close to where they live. While all these are praiseworthy, what is lacking is a coordinated effort so as to gain maximum effectiveness out of minimum effort. What is missing is a central coordinated focus, not a centralized management because then it will be prey to bureaucracy.

Let the PM think about “INSANI MADAD” (HUMAN HELP) Committees in each Province, Division, District, Sub-Division and Police Station. The best thing would be for the PM to form such a Committee on a bi-partisan non-political Federal Basis and then induct non-political volunteer concerned citizens in each field. The only bureaucrat with every Committee should act as Secretary/Liaison of the relevant Committee. This Federal Committee would then invite for volunteers on a Province-wise basis, choosing a similar Committee in the Province, the Provincial Committee would then choose Divisional Committees and so on till we reach the basic-unit in the Police Station. Each committee would have Sub-Committees in education, health, hygiene, population control, sanitation, potable water and vocational training etc. To give a ready example there are a number of Katchi Abadis around Defence Housing Authority, Karachi, each Phase may have one or even two or three Committees depending upon the Katchi Abadi adjacent to them. Near Defence Phase 5 adjacent to Clifton we have Shah Rasul Colony and Neelam Colony. Nearby affluent residents of Defence Phase 5 (no house worth less than Rs 5 million) can make as INSANI MADAD Committee each for the two Katchi Abadis. The Shah Rasul INSANI MADAD Committee can then have Sub-Committees for Population Control, Education, Health and Hygiene, Sanitation, potable water, vocational training etc. From among the residents of Shah Rasul Colony, one person may be taken on a consensus basis as a Member of the Sub-Committee as an active liaison. The Shah Rasul Sub-Committee on Education will then assess (1) the educational requirements of the community including existing ones and their abilities (2) enumerate the number of school/college going children (3) identify locations for constructing a new school premises (4) organize funds from Phase 5 residents. KMC or KDA, whatever the case may be, can give matching funds but even if they don’t it should not deter the affluent. Similarly in each sub-sector, the same procedure may be followed, with volunteers, both on full-time and part-time basis helping with the management of the school, the donated funds providing for the running of school operations. In Shah Rasul Colony, approximately about 150 school-going children lack facilities. Such a school, with about 7-8 classrooms, each classroom of about 500 sq ft would cost (i.e. the school about 5000 sq ft) about Rs 2 million to build (2nd class construction @ Rs 400 per sq ft), it would cost about Rs 2-2.5 million a year to run, including salaries, books and stationery, a glass of milk daily for the children, other overheads, etc. The health and hygiene as well as population control sub-units could be dovetailed with the school as well as provide space for Committee’s office work. The whole total for the first year would be Rs 4.8 million i.e. an average of Rs 9,600 for each of the 500 households in Phase 5 areas adjacent to Shah Rasul Colony. For people whose monthly electricity bill exceeds Rs 10,000, can they not spare less than that amount in the whole year for philanthropy on an active and effective basis? For all the projects put together, the average would be Rs 4,000-5,000 a month, this is the minimum an affluent household should be able to spare. Many of the affluent can afford to give much, much more.

For those who are affluent, we have a debt to pay to the nation. We can do this best by making philanthropy active and effective in our communities. This can only be done in a focussed and organized manner. We must make philanthropy work for our people so that they can benefit from arriving in the 21st century.

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