Sharjah: Saeed Hayat, a Pakistani expat in Sharjah, has transformed lives back home.
He brought education, health care, and vocational training to his hometown of Kotli Bhutta in Punjab province. An orphanage is also due to open in May.
All welfare projects were started by Hayat’s Al Ilm Trust, set up in 1995. Al Ilm is Urdu for education.
“There was nothing in our village. No college, no clinic, no orphanage,” said Hayat, 65, an engineer at Dubai Municipality.
“All this couldn’t have been possible without the help of good people in the UAE. I can’t thank the donors in the UAE enough. 90 per cent of the donations come through them.
“We spent 50 million Pakistani rupees [Dh1.74 million] to complete these projects. And we have to spend about Rs100,000 per month to keep them going,” said who has been living in the UAE for the last 40 years.
In 2006, he donated his ancestral land — worth roughly Dh383,000 — so an non-government organisation (NGO) could build a girls college on the 35,000-square-feet site.
But Hayat’s dream to help others stretches back to his childhood days, when he would provide a 10km-long bicycle ride to his aunt so she could attend college.
“She would fall, get her uniform dirty and not want to go,” said Hayat.
In 1960, there was only a primary school for the entire village of some 500 homes. Higher education options were few and far away.
And with no modern or affordable transport link, and parents reluctant to send girls to school, that distance seemed impossible to cover, Hayat said.
“The girls were so talented but because of these problems they were deprived of a future,” he said.
College, vocation courses
Today, around 700 girls from the village and surrounding areas attend the Alama Iqbal Intermediate Girls College. The Trust sponsors the fees of some 15 students every month, which can cost about Dh24 per student.
“It would cost almost double that just to hire a bus to take them to the nearest college. Now people from 25 nearby villages are benefiting in Kotli Bhutta,” Hayat said.
The area is home to roughly 75,000 people.
Also, about 100 children go to the free Fatima Zahra Quran school, which has a vocational wing for women wanting to learn knitting and similar trades. Children attend religious classes after regular day school.
Hayat hopes to make the vocational wing a stand-alone facility and introduce computer and technical courses too.
Medical centre
Meanwhile, another Trust initiative, the Al Noor Medical Centre, is dispensing free medicine to some 40-50 patients every day.
And in a few months, an orphanage, Dar ul Eman, will care for 10-15 children at a time.
Hayat said he has to visit home often — at least four times a year — to oversee the work of the Trust. “It’s mostly a one-man show, I need to be there on the ground as much as possible.”
He added that support from his office has been particularly encouraging.
“I want to thank my superiors and colleagues at Dubai Municipality who believed in me and gave me moral support. Especially Hussain Lootah [Director General of Dubai Municipality] and Essa Al Maidoor [now Director General of Dubai Health Authority].
“If I hadn’t had the background of working at DM for so long, who would have helped a lone man.
“People can be suspicious, they would think twice about giving Dh5 to someone who claims he lost his wallet and needs taxi fare.”
Dream projects
Hayat shows pictures of welfare projects launched by his Al Ilm Trust in Pakistan. Al Ilm is the Urdu for ‘education’. The trust spends about 100,000 Pakistani rupees every month to keep these welfare projects going.
Empowering women
In 2006, Hayat donated his ancestral land — worth Dh383,000 — so a non-government organisation could build a college for women on the 35,000 square foot site.
