Welcome to HANDS
HANDS, founded in 1979 by Prof. A. G. Billoo (Sitara-e-Imtiaz), has emerged as one of Pakistan’s largest non-profit organizations.
With a comprehensive development approach and expertise in disaster management, HANDS is currently active in 55 districts of Pakistan, serving a population of over 34 million in 25,000 villages through a network of 32 branches. Its volunteer board of 13 members and a workforce of over 11,000 are supported by thousands of community-based volunteers and over 7,500 partner organizations. HANDS is registered under the Societies Act, certified by the Pakistan Center of Philanthropy (PCP), and tax exempted by the Income Tax Department of the Government of Pakistan.
Over the past 43 years, HANDS has made significant contributions to community development and disaster response, including flood rehabilitation, providing zakat for flood affectees, and rebuilding flood houses. As it looks to the future, HANDS remains committed to serving Pakistan and the world in the decades to come.
Founder's Message
The small but determined efforts initiated 43 years ago have transformed HANDS with its vision of “Quality of Life for All in an equitable, inclusive and sustainable World” into the country’s largest Not for Profit organization.
HANDS works with two approaches to contribute to Pakistan’s set targets of Sustainable Development Goals, one Community Development replete with a multisectoral approach in health, education, livelihood, infrastructure, water and sanitation sectors. Second is Disaster Management from response to resilience. One of HANDS’ focuses in Community Development is the promotion of flood resilient housing to mitigate the impact of floods in vulnerable areas.
Our efforts are validated by the extensive support we receive from the Governments, National.
The exponential growth of HANDS started from one village in 1979 in Karachi suburbs to more than 24000 intervened villages/ Urban settlements from Razmak North Waziristan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – KP) to Thatta (Sindh) and from Qila Saifullah (Balochistan) to Muzaffargarh (Punjab) is proof of our viability.
The pace of growth in the last decade exposed the management team to more than 800 projects worth Rs. 24 billion management. This scale job was only possible because of guidelines provided by 34 Operational Policies and Institutional Technology-based systems to manage human resources, finances, and procurement. The top financial Audit and Sharia firms also assist and guide us to ensure transparency.
We are in the process of implementing our strategy for 2030. It aims to strengthen and continue its efforts against the National set targets of Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) in Livelihood, Health, Water and Sanitation, Education, Infrastructure and Disaster Management. It proposed five long-term outcomes and 14 short-term outputs to sharpen and rebalance HANDS’ future strategic direction and strengthen its responsiveness.
Our Strategic Focus is five key themes of Sustainable Development Goals, including People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnerships. Our Key Approaches of development are Inclusive Development, Universal Development, Integrated Development, Climate-Friendly Development, Locally Focused Development Technology-Driven Development.
One of the mile stones of strategy 2030 is the establishment of a degree-awarding HANDS-Institute of Development Studies (IDS). This institute will help us improve our quality of services and bridge the gap between professional classroom teaching, training, and community realities at the grassroots level. Another goal is to establish HANDS Microfinance Foundation that is a Non Banking Finance Certifide (NBFC) Company, to scale Interest Free Micro Finance.
We believe whatever we have done is a sincere and devoted effort, utilizing our maximum capacity. However, we understand that our work is a drop in the ocean. There is a lot more to be done to bring Pakistan in the line of developed and prosperous countries, it is not a job of one institution, not even the public sector can do it alone. We believe that we have evidence-based interventions, can be scaled with the help of all all stake holders.
We pray to Almighty Allah to give us more courage and capabilities to serve humanity which is our ultimate goal.