KARACHI: Everyone is aware that Pakistan is rated very high for philanthropy even though its track record in other fields is dismal. A nation can only progress if half of its population is economically empowered. These thoughts were expressed at the seventh Ladies Fund Women’s Awards on Saturday at the Mohatta Palace Museum.

Souriya Anwar, the highly articulate founder president of SOS Children’s Villages, and winner of the 2014 lifetime achievement award in her acceptance speech paid a tribute to the volunteers who supported her cause. “I would like to rephrase this award and call it a lifetime satisfaction award. I want to thank my band of friends, volunteers and donors who made SOS such a success.”

Lauding Pakistanis for their big-heartedness, Ms Anwar said that SOS village was internationally recognised as the world’s largest orphan care provider that included 2,000 projects in 130 countries and outside Europe Pakistan was the only self-financing country. “The rest of them are not even meeting 10 per cent of their budget, [it is being met] through donors.” She ended her speech with US writer Maya Angelou’s quote: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style.”

The second winner of the 2014 lifetime achievement award, Dr Nafis Sadik, chose to highlight women’s reproductive health issues in her acceptance speech. “Pakistan has come a long way but we have so much to do especially in education, health, family planning and reproductive health. According to a survey only half of women have access to reproductive health services and a third of pregnancies are unwanted.” She lamented that even though she had been commended by her peers for successfully launching family planning services and population control programmes in other countries, she had been unable to do so in her own country. “I urge the ladies fund awards to take up this issue. Pakistan has all the means to meet these challenges that can only be met by quality leadership.”

The joyous mood of the ceremony became solemn when families of Akbari Jumman and Anita Jumani, slain volunteers of polio vaccination campaign, were called onto the stage to receive the Khushali Bank Idol Awards that included the education fund for the eldest daughters of Akbari and Anita. Some of the attendees were so moved by the stories of these women that they also announced funding. The chief guest, Rubina Qaimkhani, the provincial minister for women development, social welfare and special development, announced an amount of Rs100,000 for the families, and Talat Hashmi, the president of the society for the rehabilitation for special people, announced that her institute would undertake the rehabilitation of Akbari’s son who was a special child.

The grave atmosphere continued when families of Parveen Rehman of the Orangi Pilot Project and Zahra Shahid Hussain, president of women’s wing of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf were called onto the stage to receive the Ladies Fund Courage Awards. Ms Rehman’s sister Aquila Ismail shared her sister’s ideas with the audience members saying: “When you are working with the under-privileged communities you have to develop relationships. You just don’t give, you have to tell them what to do.”

The well-attended awards ceremony ended with the announcement of education scholarships, including a musical scholarship to upcoming singer Alycia Diaz (who delivered a powerful rendition of the national anthem at the beginning of the awards function), vocational scholarships and an international scholarship.