Labard holds fund-raising dinner

The Lahore Businessmen Association for Rehabilitation of Disabled (Labard) held its annual fund-raising dinner at the Royal Palm Country Club. The funds generated from the event will be used to provide and facilitate free counselling services, medical treatment, education, and vocational training and employment opportunities to disable persons.
The Labard Fund Raising Dinner was a rare show of solidarity by the all segments of the society with the physically challenged persons who have the desire to play their role as active members of the society. A gathering of over 750 personalities of the city at the lawns of Royal Palm Golf and Country Club was enough to make the point that they all are ready to pool their resources to erase the stigma of disability from the face of Lahore. The Labard, which started its journey in the year 1996 with a resolve to extend help to the physically challenged persons, has given assistance to thousands of poor and needy disabled persons.
Labard President, MNA, Pervez Malik, Vice President Farooq Naseem, senior Vice President Mian Nusratuddin, Secretary General Bushra Aitzaz, Joint Secretary Mohammad Saeed Khan, Secretary Information Ahmer Malik, Imtiaz Ahmad Pervez, Naghmana Javed, Dr Faiza Asfhar, Mifta Ismail and a large number of businessmen, government officials and bureaucrats attended the dinner.
Speaking on the occasion, Pervaiz Malik said, "Labard is a project that is very close to my heart. I have always felt that there have been very few facilities for the physically and mentally challenged. These talented people can be treated and provided guidance for earning a respectable livelihood and place in the society; however, we need continuous support from individuals and organisations to keep our mission alive". He said Pakistan's informal census indicates that about 2.49 per cent of the total population consists of disable people.
It is responsibility to all of us to help and support them, the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry have been working effortlessly in raising funds and taking an active part in the administration of Labard. In his address, Labard joint secretary Mohammad Saeed Khan said that the Labard has so far arranged jobs for hundreds of disabled persons and it is soon coming up with a, state-of-the-art, training center in Lahore where the disabled persons would not only be imparted with training in various faculties but arrangements would also be made for their placement in different organisations.
He said that a number of services being rendered by the Labard included: medical assistance, counselling of mentally disabled persons, speech therapy, Qarz-e-Hasana and crutches, tricycles are being provided absolutely free of cost. The number of disabled persons who got themselves registered with the Labard for availing these facilities is now in thousands.
He said that rehabilitation of disabled persons is a sacred job and everybody should come forward to play his role. He said that the Labard was getting a very good response from the registration camps it was holding at Union council level. He said that in the developed world, the disabled persons are always given a special treatment, they are provided with every possible facility so that they could use their abilities for the well-being of society and now the situation in Pakistan was also taking a positive turn and a large number of disabled persons are running their own businesses with the help of Labard.