SWAT: A local schoolteacher and his students help the needy families by providing them food packages during the holy month of Ramazan.

Led by Mohammad Alam, the group collected money from friends and relatives before the month of Ramazan and arranged a package including wheat flour, ghee, cereals, black tea, sugar, rice and other food items.

Mr Alam told this scribe that mainly he and his students worked voluntarily to help poor people, especially during the month of Ramazan.

“Many friends and relatives either donate food items or give us cash with which we purchase food items. When we purchase food items, we make packages and then distribute the same among the already identified deserving families anywhere in Swat,” he said.

The teacher said that in two days, they distributed the food packages among 2,600 families. He said that in the current year, he received Rs6 million from different people with which he prepared food packages for 2,600 deserving families.

He said that they properly collected the data of poor families in the nine union councils of Swat before the month of Ramazan and then carried the packages to their houses in the nights.

His students said that Mr Alam always taught them humanity and social work and that’s why they joined him in the good cause. “Our teacher always gives us lectures on taking part in social work activities in school and this is why today I am here to offer my services voluntarily. I just want to get internal satisfaction by helping poor people,” said Mohammad Abbas, one of Alam’s students, who was arranging the packages with him.

Sanaullah, who is a law student in Swat University and a former student of Alam, said that all the students in his group had spirit to serve the communities.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2021