ABOUT US

A successful team is a group of many hands and one mind.

HUMANITY

INTEGRITY

RESPECT

TRANSPARENCY

Thought Behind Zunnorain Foundation

Zunnorain Welfare Society is a non-profit, voluntary welfare organization registered with department of Social Welfare, Government of Punjab. The foundation has been working for the children with disabilities since 2014, to make them self-reliant by providing them educational and rehabilitation services. These services include:

Vocational training to enable special children to work and earn their livelihood
Individualized Educational Programs (IEPs)
Empowering women, Empowering generation
Empowering youth to become future leaders
Providing basic literacy skills to women and youth

Vision

To build an inclusive, sustained and responsive society thus creating an enabling environment for disadvantaged people.

Mission

Nurturing creativity, confidence and self-reliance among under-served individuals through capacity building, compassion and empathy, thus leading their path toward decent livelihood

Our Values

Faith
Discipline
Empathy
Honesty

MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDER

From the birth of my child to his upbringing and very often learning from the doctors about his health issues, the issues he has to face for the rest of his life, all felt unreal; like a bad dream. The doctors telling me, “Sami has a very narrow nasal valve and he will likely have difficulty breathing”, “Sami has anal stenosis and he will need enema to pass stool”, your son has a narrowed esophagus”, “he might have an underdeveloped brain”, “we need to do a biopsy”, “another biopsy is needed”, “a surgical intervention is needed for his ears”, “this test shows he has severe osteoporosis”, the list is long as is my waiting hours outside doctors’ clinics. When a mother gives birth to a child, it’s not just the child she gives birth to, she also gives birth to a lot of dreams and with them hopes for that child.

And the realization does not come easy that all those hopes and dreams are not going to materialize.

My son is 15 years old and for the last fifteen years, with every new diagnosis, I broke into a million pieces and have taught myself to gather up myself to become a strong mother for Abdul Sami. The way life has turned out, I find myself stronger with each passing day. At Zunnorain Welfare Society, more than 80 children are being taken care of meeting their basic needs.

Zunnorain Welfare Society has been fortunate enough to be surrounded by wonderful people who have always supported us both morally and financially.

Our dedicated staff including therapists, special educators, mentors and teachers motivate, guide and inspire students who have immense potential and this is sculpted over the rehabilitation period into an entity that is self-reliant, confident and ready to take every challenge of this world.

Our foundation is currently working with three key aims in mind – providing education for the most disadvantaged individuals residing in Faisalabad urban slums in Pakistan, providing them with healthcare and offering vital support for their families. These opportunities offer a transformative lifeline to the most underprivileged and hard-to-reach children and their families.

We offer hope to those struggling to exist in these urban slums. “Our students are some of the most wonderful people who do not fit into boxes”.

Qurat-ul-Ain Shahid

CEO – Zunnorain Welfare Society

Success Roadmap

OUR JOURNEY

Abdul Sami, was the first student of a home-school arranged by his mother, Qurat-ul-ain, after losing hope in all the mainstream and special schools of Faisalabad. Mrs. Qurat-ul-ain hired a psychologist and started to homeschool her son who has global developmental delays and a number of other medical conditions including severe osteoporosis and hemophilia. Considering the special needs of her son, she enrolled in a master degree program in Special Education at GC University Faisalabad in order to understand the ways with which she could teach and train her son in the best possible way. In a few months, a mother of three children with Cerebral Palsy requested to accommodate her kids as well in the home-school which was being run in the drawing room of the house. The word spread about this home-school and parents of children with special needs from around the neighborhood started to pour in to seek accommodation for their kids. “I understood the pain, the emotional and financial pressure which the parents go through while raising a child with special needs, so, I could not find courage in myself to say ‘no’ to the parents” she recalls. It was a challenge for her to even discuss the topic of starting an institution for other children and adding up to it, the resources for running such an institute were unknown to her. As a housewife and living in a joint family system, she was fortunate that her family embraced and supported her to let in more children with special needs for training and education. As the number of children grew from 4 to 40 in a time span of two years, the family accommodated these children in their drawing room, their small garden (which was later converted into a proper class room) and their garage.

At this stage this ‘home-school’ was named Zunnorain Welfare Society in memory of Mrs. Qurat ul-ain’s late brother, Zunnorain Sikander. In 2017, a 5-marla house was rented nearby and till now, the Foundation is operating in the same building. In order for the Foundation to run in a strictly professional manner, the process for registration with the Department of Social Welfare was started and finally got registered on April 23, 2019 as Zunnorain Welfare Society.