Free electricity for leading social welfare institutions

In a world of increasing competition, return to shareholders is no more a barometer of corporate performance. In order to thrive and succeed today, companies are accountable to a broad range of stakeholders - employees, customers, governments, suppliers and shareholders. At the same time, they also have a responsibility towards the community and its welfare.
The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) is the largest producer and supplier of electricity in the country's private sector and caters to the power needs of more than 20 million people in Karachi and its environs. The mega metropolis is also proud to be home to a number of dedicated institutions and initiatives that cater to deserving causes in such key sectors as education, health and disability.
To create an enabling environment and support a sustainable environment for such causes, KESC has launched an innovative programme titled 'Stakeholder Engagement and Enrichment Drive for Sustainability' - or SEEDS. Under this programme, the company is providing free electricity to various leading social welfare institutions.
In a country like Pakistan, where needs exceed availability, it is quite heartening to see individuals and organisations stepping forward to fill the need gap on voluntary basis. In addition to several NGOs working in the social welfare sector, lately a number of corporate entities have also stepped forward to extend their support and positively impact the lives of deserving and under-privileged persons. The KESC has been quite active on the social front ever since its current management took over about four years ago and its SEEDS initiative is another big leap forward in this direction.
Instead of simply supplying electricity to over 20 million people of Karachi, KESC has moved many steps forward and is making efforts to impact the community in a much broader and meaningful context through social investment. The top management at KESC fully understands that the utility's own turnaround and sustainability is fundamentally linked to economic, social and environmental values with regard to the community it serves.
SEEDS is financed completely through KESC's own resources. The initiative encompasses a holistic approach that fully recognises the utility's performance in sustainable development across the entire stakeholder spectrum. The core objective of the programme is to invest resources, including time, into sustainable projects that can change the social and economic landscape of the city, which is KESC's humble contribution towards enabling and empowering worthy entities so that they could serve their respective communities better.
To focus the initiative in the right direction, KESC has set up certain criteria that will help the prospective entities to qualify for the support that the company is offering. The "empowered" entity would basically be a charitable organisation operating in the public welfare domain in the health or education sector and should be located and operational within the limits of KESC's distribution territory. It must be an independently registered NGO with declared Articles and Memorandum of Association. Its operations must be open to the general public without any specific community focus or restriction.
The qualifying entity must be providing at least 70 percent of its services to deserving individuals free of cost or at minimal charges acceptable to KESC. In general, the entity must be a non-profit institution, totally non-political and should not be associated or linked to any business house. The magnitude of operations of such entities would need to be relatively large and they should directly impact every year at least 5,000 individuals belonging to underprivileged segments of society.
Such institutions should also enjoy a transparent reputation and their credibility should not be questionable in many manners whatsoever. There are four beneficiaries of KESC's Empowerment Programme so far. These are some of Karachi's well-known healthcare and educational institutions with whom the company has recently signed memoranda of understanding.
THE CITIZENS FOUNDATION (TCF) The MoU with TCF entails that KESC would bear 100 percent cost of the electricity consumed by approximately 320 schools in The Citizens Foundation network as wells as its Head Office in Karachi. KESC would also be working with TCF to provide electricity meters to a further 46 TCF schools in the city. Established in 1995 by a group of citizens concerned about the dismal state of education in Pakistan, TCF has established 830 purpose-built schools in 93 towns and cities nation-wide with an enrolment of 115,000 students. Of these, 52,000 students are registered in Karachi.
LAYTON RAHMATULLA BENEVOLENT TRUST (LRBT) KESC would be bearing 100 percent electricity costs of two LRBT hospitals, one located in Korangi and the other in North Karachi. LRBT has treated over 22 million eye patients in OPD and performed over 2.2 million major and minor surgeries since its inception 26 years ago. In 2010-11, over 2.2 million patients visited OPDs at LRBT's 17 hospitals and 39 clinics across the country where 208,796 major and minor surgeries were performed. LRBT offers all eye-related treatment and surgeries free of charge.
MARIE ADELAIDE LEPROSY CENTRE KESC would be paying 100 percent of MALC's electricity bill every month. Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre provides free medical aid to a large number of leprosy, eye and TB patients across the country, including Karachi. By the end of 2011, MALC had treated over 800 leprosy patients, had operated on 4,575 eye patients and had registered over 10,000 TB patients. MALC's leprosy cure rate is 97 percent.
INDUS HOSPITAL Under a memorandum of understanding with Indus Hospital, KESC will bear 50 percent of the hospital's electricity costs every month. Indus Hospital provides free of charge medical care through its wide ranging clinical departments and also provides free postgraduate medical education to deserving students. The hospital conducts high-tech coronary angioplasty, life saving cardiac bypass surgery, cutting-edge laser interventions and restorative orthopaedic procedures.
It needs to be emphasised that as citizens face new challenges, particularly those living in mega urban centres such as Karachi, the entire spectrum of governmental and private contribution must be channelized to provide increasingly higher inputs in maintaining a respectable level of sustainability. This calls for much greater efforts at all levels and KESC for its part is ready to play an exemplary role in the overall progress and development of society.