SELECT ANWAR KHAWAJA INDUSTRIES HEALTH & EDUCATION PROGRAM
The best toy in the world, a ball, can spread joy for people with great challenges and change focus for at least a brief moment.
SELECT Sport sells more than 3 million balls every year. Around 90% of these hand-stitched balls are produced in the Sialkot area of Pakistan by Anwar Khawaja Industries (AKI). SELECT is one of many companies whose production is carried out here, where 70% of the hand-stitched balls in the world are made. The majority of the many thousands of people who stitch balls in Sialkot do not work directly for the ball companies, but are part of a wide network of subcontractors and their subcontractors. These workers do not receive a fixed wage, but are paid for each ball they make.
HEALTH
There is very little social welfare provision in Pakistan, which means that a serious illness can easily wipe out a family’s finances. As a result, SAHEP was adapted to include free medication and medical assistance for all workers and their family members. The SAHEP families are given a medical card and a list of local hospitals, doctors and specialists included in the programme. The bills are sent directly to SAHEP’s office. Around 7.285 people now have a SAHEP medical card.SAHEP also hires a mobile healthcare team to provide health care locally. This includes a nurse, midwife and a trainer, and sometimes a specialist. The healthcare team goes out to the villages once a week and carries out health checks, baby checks and vaccinations, provides information on family planning, nutrition and hygiene and distributes medicines.
EDUCATION
“We are very grateful to the SAHEP programme which meets our needs and is adapted to the taboos we have here. My sister Shabana and I would not have learnt to read and write if the programme had not existed", says Naseem, a SAHEP pupil.In order to encourage families to educate their children instead of sending them out to work, SAHEP gives the family a sum of money for each child going to school. This money covers the cost of school books, a pair of shoes, a uniform and a sweater, things that children need to be able to attend the local primary school. Teenagers and adults who continue beyond basic schooling also receive financial support.SAHEP also provides local education for children who cannot go to general school because they have already been taken out of the school, they are disabled or for other reasons. The programme covers the expenses for our teachers who visit small groups of pupils six days a week for two hours at a time, provides teachers with motor bikes and basic teaching resources and gives pupils school books and other materials in a hard-wearing metal box. We also arrange special summer courses and afternoon lessons, which includes extra tuition for children who need help with their schoolwork in the state school.
ONGOING COMMITMENT
SELECT sees SAHEP as an integral part of its corporate culture and social responsibility. We also believe that the programme helps us to maintain the high level of quality as it promotes the workers’ loyalty to SELECT and AKI. For all these reasons, SELECT and AKI will continue to develop and expand the SAHEP programme.