LAHORE – Ufone collaborated with a social entrepreneur initiative – Rizq – carrying on its practice of supporting admirable people and establishments, which in response helps the less fortunate community of Pakistan.
Initiated in April 2015, Rizq is the idea of a group of students from LUMS. One of the economics students, Huzaifa Ahmad shared his aspiration to channelize excess food to the deprived people of Lahore who cannot afford meals on a daily basis.
Huzaifa’s partners and close friends, Musa Amir and Qasim Javed, were on board right away and the three entrepreneurs joined together to construct a bridge between leftover food at restaurants, weddings, and families (usually wasted) and families living in blighted areas of Lahore.
Ufone is now supporting this commendable cause and is willing to purchase media space on television channels and digital media throughout Ramadan, to promote Rizq free of cost. This will assist gather more support for their efforts by spreading the message of their cause from corner to corner of the country.
Ufone drew attention to the partnership at an event that took place on June 7th, 2017, at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Lahore. Bloggers and representatives from local print, electronic and digital media were present at the event.
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How does Rizq Operate?
In the first phase, the Rizq team recognizes an area within Lahore, usually skid rows and villages, and maps out the community. Then, food drives are promoted on Rizq’s official Facebook page and website to encourage people to contact them if they have any surplus or leftover food from gatherings or otherwise to make a contribution. Upon creation, Rizq’s Facebook page generated 5,000 likes during the night.
As phase two, food is gathered from partner eateries, bakeries, caterers and family circles. The food generally comes in big containers, which are taken to a store where it is quality checked, and then sorted into smaller packages for distribution. Finally, the food packages are delivered to the mapped communities.
When you add it all together, Rizq serves up 200 to 250 meals every day, and the team intends to bring this up to 2000 meals per day. During Ramadan, Rizq aims to arrange 2-3 Iftar “Dastarkhwan” on diverse locations every day to make food obtainable for the deserving community.
For the expansion of their operations, Rizq needs Rs 1.5 million to purchase a cold storage van and a cold storage facility to administer larger quantities of foodstuff. The team has been running with fridges till now, which limits them to the immediate distribution food.
For the very first time a food bank has been established in Pakistan to channelize surplus food and the project has the potential to decrease poverty and renovate people’s lives. Guaranteeing meal availability means the deserving families can now use their money for other basic needs like sending their children to school or buying medication for ill family members.
Ufone expects this will encourage a spirit of sharing and bigheartedness in others too.
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