OUR HISTORY

Al-Karim Welfare Society (AKWS) is a civil society organization focusing on youth development and engagement, aiming to empower young boys and girls of Chitral to reach their full potential, live a healthy and meaningful life and contribute to the sustainable development of the societies they live in.

The idea of AKWS was conceived by Ehsan Ul Haq Jan in 1988 when he was 18 years old. As a passionate and inspiring young social activist in his village Booni, Ehsan realized the importance of engaging the youth of the area in healthy activities to enable them to be responsible citizens of society. Along with his close friends, he founded AKWS as a platform for young people of the area to get together; discuss their critical social issues; arrange recreational events; have positive interaction with each other; and build their leadership skills so that they could effectively contribute to the socio-economic development of the area. The organization was formally registered with the government of Pakistan in 1993.

The establishment of the Al-Karim Welfare Society was a pioneering initiative of the youth of the area and was a matter of courage in a conservative society such as Chitral where the youth of the area were ignored, and any kind of association or organization of the youth was considered to be socially unacceptable. A famous proverb in the Khowar language, ‘a youth knows how to run but is yet to know how to fall’ commonly used by the elders of the area back then, signifies how the older generation belittled the young people. The establishment of AKWS served to be a turning point in how the elders of the area looked at the young people and provided a new model of social development to the local communities where the voices of the young generation matter and the young people work together with the elders to solve problems of the local communities.

In the early years since its inception, AKWS focused on organizing recreational (sports and cultural) events; providing free tuition and mentoring services to the school-going children during winter and summer vacations, and providing voluntary services to various development organizations and government departments in organizing different public events in the area and developing leadership skills of young people by celebrating various national and international days and organizing discussion sessions on various social issues and important socio-economic themes. Over time, AKWS increased its membership base, expanded its scope of work, improved its strategies and approaches, and developed partnerships with development organizations and the government. An important milestone was achieved in 2003 when AKWS, a decade since its inception, started offering membership to the young women of the area as well, bringing a marginalized section of the society to the forefront and ensuring their active participation in the development of the local communities.

Under the guidance of Ehsan ul Haq Jan and the leadership of committed young leaders of the area, AKWS has continued to evolve as a pioneering youth development organization in the area and has been effectively responding to the emerging issues of the society and to the critical needs of the younger generation of the area.