ISLAMABAD: The PTI government’s ‘Panahgah’ initiative received a boost on Monday when the Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) signed a memorandum of understanding with the shelter home management on coalition of efforts for protecting the poor.

Prime Minister’s Focal Point on Panahgah Naseemur Rehman and SPO Chief Executive Officer Arifa Mazhar signed the MOU.

They commended the coalition of efforts for protecting the poor more importantly in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic as ‘practical demonstration of shared responsibility for the needy.’

The ‘hand washing stations’ are being provided with disinfection liquid and clean water at the place of residence for the poor who face greater risk due to unavoidable crowding as Panahgahs offer a neat and clean eating and sleeping place to them.

In the first phase, the handwashing stations are being installed in Lahore and Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

The service providers and Saylani team members who work at the ‘langars’ and Panahgahs are getting training on the site to promote the norm of handwashing as the most needed precautionary measure.

It is a big step forward turning Panagahs into a place where all the standard operating procedures can be practiced, they added.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2020