We are all too familiar now with how the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked global economic havoc, tested fragile healthcare systems, and disrupted the way we live and work. Amidst this unprecedented humanitarian and economic crisis, NGOs and private sector businesses came forward to support communities and help them rebuild from the catastrophic impact of the pandemic.

Some of these changemakers, who led impact-driven initiatives and continued to expand their efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic, were recently recognised at the I Am The Change (IATC) Impact Awards, a flagship initiative of Engro Foundation — the social investment arm of Engro Corporation.

This year’s IATC Impact Awards 2021 attracted more than 70 applications in the two categories of social enterprises and social development organisations. Following an extensive review of the applications by a jury and the IATC team at Engro Foundation, WonderTree (social enterprise category) and Charity Right Pakistan (social development) were selected as the recipients of IATC Impact Awards 2021. Each of these recipients will be given a cash prize of PKR 2 million in recognition of their efforts and to scale up their initiatives.

“My elder brother is specially-abled. One day I saw him playing games and it inspired me because he could play games on the XBox console and I thought, why not do something different along these lines with this. This was my inspiration. I found Waqas and both of us started the WonderTree journey”, said Muhammad Usman (CTO and co-founder, WonderTree).

WonderTree uses augmented reality to gamify physiotherapy and educational exercises for children with special needs, including children with autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, slow learners etc. The team has helped more than 16,000 children with disabilities by providing physiotherapy and interactive sessions.

Watch the full digital ceremony hosted by Khalid Malik here:

Muhammad Waqas (CEO and co-founder, WonderTree) added that, “The software we use has been 100% developed by our local talent in Pakistan. We are extremely proud and humbled at the same time to be able to provide such unique exposure to local IT talent and create an impact in society.”

Sharing some roadblocks faced along this journey, Usman and Waqas highlighted that one of the biggest challenges is recognition. “There is a lot of demand for WonderTree but getting the right people to know about WonderTree is a challenge. The second one is getting the right talent on board. Who can work with us, who can work for this cause. The third challenge is getting investment and funding so that we can grow the company.”

“So, we are very excited and thankful to Engro Foundation for this support and recognising us at the I Am The Change Awards. The proceeds are going to be used for developing further games. We have a huge list of games that need to be developed, so we will develop them to create more impact for children and make them even better," they added.

The other IATC Award recipient, Atir Idrees — founder of Charity Right Pakistan, had a life-changing moment in 2014, when Thar was hit by a famine. “My father was there distributing rations to the affected families. That is when he requested me to join the cause and when I went there, it was a turning point for me. To see the people living in a marginalised society, having no access to electricity, water and cellphone signals. That was the moment when I realised that God has blessed me immensely and He would question me for not doing something for the people around me," Atir recalled.

Hence, Charity Right Pakistan was born. The organisation believes in a fair and equal world by overcoming hunger in hard-to-reach areas. Amidst Covid-19, the organisation distributed ration packs to around 13,000 families and launched Right Choice stores to offer discounts on staples, along with a Right Pay Card to enable the beneficiaries to receive necessities from these stores. Charity Right Pakistan has continued to magnify its impact, generating a discount value PKR 2.2 million by serving around 6,100 customers last month.

Shedding light on the challenges faced by Charity Right Pakistan, he highlighted that, “Some challenges are behind the curtain, for instance, a whole lot of NGOs conduct ration drives in Pakistan, but the challenge for ration drives is to get the ration to the deserving people. White-collar individuals in the community are not comfortable taking the ration and that was a challenge for us when we were making Right Choice and Right Pay. So, we initially started distribution during the night so that people are comfortable, but again we could not get the desired efficiency”.

"We started with a few pop-up stores in Lyari, five of them to be exact. We would purchase the groceries in bulk and pass on the discounts to the consumer. On average, the margin between the manufacturer and the retailer/intermediary is around 20-30%. Therefore, we purchased directly from the manufacturer and gave the whole discount to the consumer. Also, no donation money is being used in Right Choice. It is a continuously sustainable programme — bought something for PKR 100, bore an expense of PKR 5 and then sold it for PKR 105. The cycle repeats itself," he added.

Appreciating the support extended by Engro Foundation, he shared that, “We are going to use the recipient award prize to build a robust system for ourselves. We are currently using an off-the-shelf system that is enabling us to run 11 stores in different areas around Karachi and Mithi, Tharparkar. However, we would like to maximise our efficiency and visibility. So, with this grant, we are going to design a robust tailor-made system for us that's going to help us expand to 100 shops by the end of December 2023.”

As a homegrown organisation, Engro is a strong proponent of investing in social development to build a better future for all Pakistanis. The IATC awards showcase Engro’s belief in forging public-private partnerships to support change agents to help solve some of the most pressing issues of Pakistan.

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