Sunday, January 16, 2022

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I want to thank all of you for responding to my request for funds for Afghanistan. We set up Aid to Afghanistan (ATA), a volunteer group. To reduce costs and avoid reinventing the wheel, we decided to collaborate with a registered Charity (NGO) Fatih Foundation which has years of experience in delivering relief supplies locally and internationally.

From many of you, we received a total of Rs.2,715,835 in the Fatih Foundation account. We procured the following items:
Item Quantity App. Cost
Flour 10,000KG Rs.665,000
Rice 5,000KG Rs.400,000
Sugar 2,000KG Rs.272,000
Cooking Oil 1,800L Rs.720,000
Total Cost Rs.2,057,000

We packed the items in 1000 family-sized boxes for easy distribution in Afghanistan. Each box contained flour (10 kg), rice (5 kg), sugar (2kg), and cooking oil (1.8L).

We readied a 40-foot container truck. Along with a similar truck of Fatih Foundation, a convoy of two trucks left for the Pak-Afghan Chaman border on 16th Dec 2021 accompanied by two ATA volunteers, Mr. Waqas Mohsin and Mr. Muhammad Farooq. They crossed into Afghanistan and handed over the supplies to Haji Akhtar Muhammad (Head of Afghan Red Crescent Society for South Afghanistan) for onward distribution to the needy. Our volunteers spent time in Kandahar and assessed further needs of the people.

Please check the following link for photographs:(https://aidtoafghanistan.vivoticsol.com/gallery/)

The truck’s packaging, transportation, and labor charges came out to be Rs. 574,000, and the supplies and their delivery cost came to be Rs. 2,631,000. We have a balance of Rs. 84,835 in our accounts for our next dispatch. You would be happy to know that we completed this project with zero overhead cost, with ATA volunteers pitching in their personal funds for other related expenses.

These supplies have arrived in war-ravaged Afghanistan at a much-needed time. I thank Allah (SWT) for giving us this opportunity to serve our brothers and sisters and would like to thank you all again for your support.

I will keep you posted.
Once again, thank you for your help.

Suleman Ahmer
ATA Volunteer