OUR BLOGS

On the 26th of July 2022, the Gilgit Baltistan’s Blinds United Movement (GBBUM) protested on a one-point agenda outside the Gilgit Baltistan Chief Minister’s House. The demand was that under the Persons with Disabilities, 2019, Gilgit Baltistan Act, 15 members of the Blind Community should be appointed to government jobs as soon as possible in Gilgit, while ten blind persons should be appointed in every other district of Gilgit Baltistan. The purpose of the protest was to show that the disabled community was united on this one-point agenda. Many individuals from Gilgit, Hunza, Baltistan, Chilas, and Ghizer were willing to protest until their demand was met.

The Right Honourable Social Welfare Secretary, Mr. Najeeb Alam, visited Gilgit Baltistan’s Goodwill Movement Skills Development Centre. President Farhan briefed Secretary Alam on the challenges of the Centre, which were discussed in the documentary below. While speaking to Alam, Farhan said, ‘ we have a vision of training persons with disablities, so that they can create an earning for themselves’/ As witnessed in the COVID 19 pandemic, online work is still preferred even as we have come out of lockdowns.

voters were promised that the PTI Gilgit-Baltistan government would bring change.
Voters almost felt that PTI members were actually revolutionaries. Disabled people of Gilgit-Baltistan also had the same hope.
Yet when it comes to politicians or bureaucrats, hope is a mirage.
PTIGB stands on a manifesto approved by our former Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2018 general elections. An important element of the manifesto was to promote and support the needs of the disabled, where the PTI said that the 2% quota reserved for the disabled was often not implemented in spirit.

The Gilgit Baltistan’s Goodwill Movement aims to work and collaborate with the Pakistani Government, and NGOs on furthering the rights of disabled people in Gilgit Baltistan. See other hyperlinks for more information.

The Gilgit Baltistan’s Goodwill Movement is pleased to announce that for the immediate future, it will aid the Hashoo Foundation and STEP for a year primarily to further the cause of disability rights within Gilgit Baltistan. The Hashoo Foundation. Hashoo Foundation is a knowledge-based and impact-oriented organization that empowers communities by leveraging knowledge as capital for their socio-economic uplift (Hashoo Group 2015, https://www.hashoogroup.com/hashoo-foundation). Umeed E Noor is one of their key projects that target Persons With Disabilities.

Multiple visitors ask us what the future vision for this organization is. In this short essay, we want to address some of the queries visitors have emailed or enquired about. We hope that some of these addressed concerns will focus on organizational planning, future and current objectives, and the ideal vision for persons with disabilities in Gilgit Baltistan.

Any social organization should have a long and short-term plan. Without it, one can not think ahead. Ramadan is a time when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. It is also a time when we heed our attention to the most important pillars – Namaz, Salat, Zakat, Sawm, and Hajj at the end. However, for social organizations, Zakat provides an opportunity for a charity-based organization to help victims or those affected. For large social organizations such as Islamic Relief, PennyAppeal, MuslimCharity, Wateraid, or even the Edhi Foundation, finding donors who trust them is not a challenge, mainly because they have worked to alleviate poverty, skills development, and so on for the last 20 to 30 years, however, when you analyze the disablity cause, donors seem to be less attracted and rightly so. Before I started this organization,

The notion of donating to a social organization is that it will help people to reach their goals. Be it to UNICEF, Save the Children or Islamic Relief. But the notion of donating to a cause such as Gilgit Baltistan’s Goodwill Movement is that disabled people from their own community help their own. This might sound like a tongue-twister, but it is true. We, the privileged members of the community, have to help our brothers and sisters

As we reflected on in an earlier article, what is meant by a helping hand for the disabled community? This article thoroughly discusses how this hand relies on donations from individuals, enterprises, and organizations. We spoke of transnational organizations such as Unicef, Islamic Relief, and Save the Children. In this charitious work, sometimes the marginalized are forgotten about. For example, Islamic Relief may have disabled-related programs, but their targeted initiatives only go so far and are limited in scope. We thank all charities for their efforts, but until you have leaders within your community highlighting the injustices faced,

During Ramadan, when we as Muslims are said to be closer to Allah, the Quran, and the traditions, we introspect. Sometimes we change habits – quit smoking, quit alcohol, quit slandering, and quit overall bad habits. We might think that these changes are good, but that is acceptable to a certain point. One way of observing Ramadan is by quitting watching television and music and using social media. We talk about ‘ the news’ on mass and social media as ‘ having a bad impact’ on our mental health, but how can we define its levels? Now I am not saying that everyone does not feel depression or anxiety or that the individual does not feel its other effects; instead,