Background
About a decade ago a group of students and young professionals from Lahore, who I was a part of, ran a community welfare project named Project ROTI. The core idea was to provide some relief to the day wage labourers (essentially taking care of their monthly wheat flour supply) so that they can continue sending their kids to school off the money saved. We ran it for a good few years targetting brick kilns around Lahore. However, we could not continue it long term as many of us moved cities, left Pakistan or moved into professional jobs which did not allow us enough time to sustain it.
What now?
Pakistan’s lower and middle class are facing a crisis of unprecedented nature. Inflation has sky rocketed and unemployment seems to have no bounds. The PKR to USD exchange rate is soaring, leaving a huge chunk of population unable to afford basic necessities and having to compromise on the education of their kids, just to make sure there is food on the table. In the case of many, even the later has become a luxury. We have daily news reports of day wage labourers sitting under scorching heat on busy roads of urban capitals in the country waiting for someone to hire them, bit to no avail – there is little work in sight; and even if they are hired, the nature of inflation means they are unable to keep up with basic needs like food and education.
So what do we do?
With that context, I want to kickstart the project again and looking for people (a) who want to financially contribute to buy wheat flour and (b) people on ground who will help us restart the project and (c) people who can help source 20 KG aata bags in bulk. Please inbox me if you are interested in any of the two. Ideally we want to start with Lahore and Karachi but quickly expand if we can find leads in major cities.
How can you help?
- Contrinute financially (one off or monthly recurring) for purchase of wheat flour bags
- Become a lead to run the project in one of the urban capitals
- Help us procure what flour in bulk at discounted rates
- Volunteer with us to help run the operations
How to contribute financially?
One off Donation for 20 KB Bag of Wheat Flour Aata
Recurring Monthly Donation for 20 KB Bag of Wheat Flour Aata
Accounts will be published on the website monthly, and all donors will be kept up to date of collections and expenses.
Register as a volunteer
Please fill this form.