Fake NGOs in Chitral -letter

Through your esteemed online news service, I would like to point out the growing trend of fake NGOs up here. Chitral is known as an NGO land.  We have an assortment of NGOs, big NGOs, Small NGOs, efficient NGOs, not so efficient NGOs.and now we can also feel the presence of fake NGOs in Chitral. Opening an NGO may be a good business, and it could not be as easy as it is in Chitral.

 In the name of poverty and woman emancipation, any one can hold a seminar inviting some regular players and journalists and the NGO is launched (on paper at least). Funding sources do not physically check the work of the NGO but mostly rely on Newspaper reports which often do not reflect more than the Lunch /dinner  preceded by a 'seminar'.

Fake NGOs with fake achievement reports creates a wrong impression about Chitral in the eyes of the donors as if Chitral is being duly benefited , whereas on ground the results are next to zero. Can there be some regulatory measures to discourage fake NGOs and keep a strict eye on the genuine ones. I also request honorable Journalists of Chitral to avoid highlighting inconsequential activities of such NGOs so that they are not unduly encouraged.. --Faridul Haq, Chitral. 26, Nov 2010

Comment 1

Thumbs up to the writer for the above letter. Rightly raised an issue which has existed for long.--Rahim Ghaffar Zondray, ADB Scholar, International University of Japan, 27 Nov 2010.

Comment 2

 Ref above thread, I would like to report the following:

An obscure group called ‘Ujala Welfare Organization’ has started to collect money from the people of Chital on the pretext of employment. The Peshawar based NGO has been charging five thousand rupees as registration fees from those who apply for job in the NGO. According to sources intimate to the NGO, the money collected from the applicants is transferred to the personal bank account of an official of this NGO.

Some officials of the NGO justify the collection of money from the applicant by saying that “the government charges fifty thousand rupees for providing a job we charge just five thousand”. Another official said that “we are taking donations from those who want to have a job with us”. What sort of NGO is it, which is collecting donations from unemployed people and that too in the name of providing employment? Likewise NGO (i.e., Big Board) have deprived the people of the Gilgit Baltistan from the savings of several years. Depressed with the situations many people have committed suicide and many have lost their mental stability. Now such a group has turned towards the people of Chitral. KP government and district administration Chitral should take a serious note of the issue before it is too late. --Fida Ali Shah Ghizri, Islamabad, 03 Dec 2010

Comment 3
A number of different Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are functioning in Chitral focusing education, social sector, Health and other major areas of human life. We must be grateful to all such Organizations who came to Chitral during late 80s and 90s with a good faith of serving the area and contributed a lot in the socio economic development of this impoverished region of Pakistan. They worked with the collaboration of local community and built schools, hospitals, water channels, drinking water pipelines and roads to link the most difficult terrains of this loftiest piece of land. However, the numbers of NGOs which are really working on practical grounds and aiming at improving the various field of life are very few in numbers.

The Aga Khan Development Network and its various other services have been instrumental in the socio economic uplift of Chitral. Other foreign funded organizations, Chitral Area Development Project (CADP) and Sarhad Rural Support Program (SRSP) must also be credited for an enormous contribution. CADP made a very brief appearance in Chitral and did a lot of things for its betterment. Besides other socio economic and awareness activities the gigantic and gallant building of Government Girls Degree College in Chitral is one solid proof. If the CADP had not built this building it might have taken several years to construct a solid building which is catering the educational needs of more than thousand students and enlightening their minds and life with a wealth of education.

Recently it has been seen that most of the people are merely obsessed with this name. Those who can do nothing open an office and label it with a name, Human right office, child right office or any other name. It takes very less time to attract the donors from abroad. People are employed and bank accounts are opened. These so called NGOs promote their activities and programs in comparatively developed localities where the stage has already been set and the ground is cleared by the previously active organization(s). They in turn want to take credit and sent their so called success stories to their benefactors in order to attract more funds. There are many who claim to be providing justice and legal awareness to women or claiming to be the champion of women rights, children right or simply human right. Sometimes I wonder that they never pay attention to the neglected areas where women are declined to raise their voice. These NGOs go for work among the women who are already in a good position to define their right and responsibilities and where women have already got autonomy in decision making. The so called legal advisors realized the situation well and they found a suitable ground to earn money in those areas where the working environment has already been cleared by the previously functioning institutions. They focused already developed areas and again neglected the already neglected people.

It is my suggestion to all such NGOs to divert their attention to the areas where the people need more attention. It is the right time to work with the deprived and unaware. Why these so called NGOs always choose Lotkuh area or Mastuj as a ground to work. I want to draw your kind attention to the areas such as Arandu, Drosh, Tehsil Chitral and some part of Torkhow and Mulkhow where the women are not allowed to talk about their rights. If the goal of the NGO is developing the people at any cost then working with the already aware areas does not serve any purpose except earning more and more money. There is already a gap between the people of different areas. Successive intervention in such areas will widen this gap and the people there feel deprived. So have a pause and think about this situation. Please don’t be only occupied with the name NGO but work on practical ground to really change the fate of the most deprived --  Z.A.Zulfi
Dokandeh, Booni 04 Dec 2010.

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