Our Story
The journey of how a belief in education became a mission to change lives.
Assalamu Alaikum and Hi all,
My name is Waqas A Siddiqui and I am based in Australia but originally from Pakistan. I moved to Australia back in 2017 but always wanted to do something back for my home country as 25% of the population still lives below the poverty line.
"I believe that to elevate any nation, good quality education is one of the solutions."
Taking this belief, I started off on a venture totally on my own and also with great support and partnership of my friend Mudassir Fida who owns and runs a chain of entrance test preparation academies in Pakistan.
There were many students in Mudassir's academy who approached him for free tuition as they came from very poor backgrounds. Here are some of the real situations we encountered:
A father who is a daily wage worker earning 15-20K PKR per month with a family of 5 to support — and who is medically not fit to do his job well.
A family already under the burden of massive loans, whose eldest child is their only chance to get out of the poverty cycle — if they qualify for the entrance exam.
An orphan who has to pass this exam and support his family.
There are many other examples to quote and the list goes on. Mudassir always offered such deserving students free tuition — they had excellent primary and secondary school exam results, some even securing board positions. But even though they passed the exam for Government Medical Universities, they couldn't afford to pay the annual fee and monthly expenses — hence they reached out to us again.
Project Started
Me and Mudassir started off this project back in 2019 with 4 students. They were students from 1st year to 3rd year in medical universities across KPK (Pakistan). We fully funded their education and also gave them a monthly stipend of 5,000 PKR which covers their food and living expenses.
Growing Impact
At the start, we were able to collect these fund targets through our friends and family but now we have a total of 7 students and are aiming to support 10 students this year. The funding total target is 1.5 million PKR (roughly 12,000 AUD).
Phase 2: Remote Coaching
Any excess money collected on top of this target will be invested in our Phase 2 — to provide remote tuition for entrance exams to students who can't travel to the main city Peshawar. We will establish temporary remote coaching centres in those areas and provide 1-2 months tuition for entrance exams for free.
150,000 PKR per student per year
Non-Profit Registration
As we type this, we are already in the process of registering ourselves with the Government of Pakistan as a non-profit organization.
Thanks for your donations — help us get these students through the finish line and become a beacon of support for their families and a bright future for Pakistan!