Ansari Welfare Trust

Kashmir Institute for Special Education (KISE)

Established since 2001 at Allama Iqbal Road, Sector C1, Mirpur in Azad Kashmir by Ansari Welfare Trust, this charity project currently provides for 76 children deprived of the sense of hearing and the power of speech. Since 2002, the Institute has enjoyed collaboration with Thorn Park School, Bradford, UK, under a twinning agreement.

Click on the links in the KISE menubar to read more about this project....

Education Support Programme

Our first priority is to help the poor and needy, and families with children who, by preparing them for education and modern technology, can be saved from child labour, enabling them to become a permanent source of support for their families. As of May 2004, under this programme seven hundred and fifty poor and needy students from class one through to M.A. have benefited from the provision of free school books, free school admission and scholarships as well as free computer courses. Ansari Welfare Trust also continues to extend financial assistance to special needs schools in Mirpur.

Family Support Programme

The principal aim of this programme is to provide financial help to low-income families, widows and orphans, irrespective of cast. Under this programme, support for daughters' weddings is also provided. As of May 2004, two hundred and fifty families have benefited, and seventy families have received help with their daughters' weddings. A single wedding function was organised and financed on 27th May 2004 at which nine girls were married; at a similar organised event on 9th September 2004 fourteen more girls were also married.

Free Sewing Training Centres

This project provides free sewing training for widows, orphan girls and women of families struggling with heroin addiction, low-income and other domestic problems. On successfully completing her training, the trainee is awarded a certificate and a free sewing machine enabling her to provide for her family's security. As of May 2004, two hundred and seventy five women and girls have taken advantage of this project.

Free Hearing Test Centre

The first ever hearing test centre in Azad was established in Mirpur in May 2005 under the management of Ansari Welfare Trust. The basic hearing equipment was kindly donated by the Audiology Department of Heartlands and Solihull Hospital NHS Trust in Birmingham (UK).

Prior to this date, the facility of hearing tests was not available at government hospitals or in the private sector in Azad Kashmir, where according to a survey, over 30,000 people are hearing impaired of which 8,000 school going children. In District Mirpur, there are over 1,000 school going hearing impaired children, and in Mirpur City the number of hearing impaired children is over 300.

Ansari Welfare Trust aims to provide services including free hearing test and hearing aids to all school going, hearing impaired children as a first priority. After that, it will provide services to hearing impaired people by starting hearing camps in different areas of Azad Kashmir and nearby area of Pakistan with the co-operation of Health, Education and Social Welfare Departments.

The management of Ansari Welfare Trust are extremely grateful and cordially thankful to the Heartlands and Solihull Hospitals and hope this will help in supporting hearing impaired families and ensuring they benefit from the reward of excellent National Health Services in the United Kingdom.

Health Aid Programme

Under this programme, the terminally ill, accident victims and others in need of emergency medical care and operations may apply for assistance. Through this programme, support has also been extended to:

• District Headquarters Hospital, Mirpur, by the donation of wheelchairs, stretchers, nebulizers and other essential items
• Kashmir Free Blood Bank with funding and provision of hospital beds, microscopes and other essential items relating to blood donation.