Akhuwat

Akhuwat Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Pakistan, aims to assist individuals who lack access to formal financial services by providing interest-free loans. Dr. Muhammad Amjad Saqib, the executive director, founded the organization in 2003. In Lahore, Akhuwat operates over three branches, serving 1,500 cities nationwide. Over the years, Akhuwat has disbursed 4.5 million interest-free loans (Qarz-e-Hasna) totaling PKR 128 Billion (US$798 million) to more than 3 million families in Pakistan. Using interest-free microfinance, the organization empowers its beneficiaries, enabling them to become socially and financially integrated members. Their mission revolves around poverty alleviation through interest-free microfinance. Expanding its efforts to address the multifaceted issue of poverty, Akhuwat has diversified into education and health, providing clothes to the underprivileged and supporting the transgender community. 

Akhuwat Pakistan operates at the local, national, and regional levels. They focus across all provinces and administrative units of Pakistan, including Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir.

Akhuwat has been responding to Pakistan’s super floods of 2022 in all affected provinces. These floods caused unprecedented damage to life, economy, livelihoods, infrastructure, and assets. Over 33 million people were affected by this disaster, over 1700 people lost their lives, over 12000 were injured, and more than 2.2 million houses were destroyed. With experience in responding to disasters and a focus on Emergency Relief and Response, which includes providing medical support, psychosocial support, food relief, emergency food rations, and shelter management, as well as Livelihood recovery, which involves offering alternative livelihood support and capacity building to restore/strengthen people’s livelihood, Akhuwat is well-prepared to handle disaster situations.  

Additionally, Akhuwat employs more than 4,000 staff across all 800+ branches, who serve as the organization’s immediate source of rapid reporting from the field during a disaster, providing crucial information about the needs of affected areas. While Akhuwat also relies on authentic research from national and international agencies to understand the needs of disaster-affected people, the on-ground situation is effectively reported by their staff in the field. Thanks to their extensive experience in disaster response, these employees possess the expertise to provide relief efficiently.