Our foundation called “Al Noor Baluchistan” was established with the express goal of providing a support environment for the more than 6 million citizens of Baluchistan – the poorest province of Pakistan, that suffers from the highest infant mortality and unemployment rates along with the lowest literacy level. For these reasons Baluchistan, and due to it’s location at the important geopolitical juncture of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been for decades an easy source for the recruitment of impoverished and illiterate Muslim youth into the drug industry and radicalized streams of pseudo-Islamic preachers.
Due to Shahal Khan’s strong Muslim roots Al Noor Foundation view mining projects within a much broader socio-economic and political context. In particular, Shahal hopes through the Foundation’s efforts to give access to high quality healthcare, education and spiritual instruction that is still not available to Balochis today.
The Foundation’s four main focal areas are for the following projects that will lead naturally into the final objective of creating a world class mining business to provide employment, economic growth, opportunity and consequently renewed hope in this deprived region.
- The first is to build a modern maternity hospital to provide advanced health care for future mothers and also to educate and disseminate basic knowledge regarding maternity hygiene, sanitary conditions and medicine among the poorest citizens who unfortunately cannot today afford to pay even their minor medical bills.
- The second is to build a modern college for children aged 6-15 from the remote villages in order to open their eyes and prevent them from being influenced by fundamentalism during the most important formative years of their lives.
- The third is to build a school which would start propagating a healthy message of true education with Allah’s untainted teachings of peace, tolerance, love and enlightenment, i.e. those fundamental pillars that are being so brutally attacked by the terrorist organizations who selfishly use the poor and uneducated youth to achieve their selfish and distorted political objectives which have little or nothing to do with Islam.
- The fourth is to build an Orphanage that will be tasked with taking care of the many dispossessed and parent less children that are currently being cast aside and as a result become targets for radicalization.
These critical projects will provide a proper support system during their formative years to prepare Balochis for gainful employment in the mining industry. This can then become the engine of change to create a modern and socially responsible economy in the province. These mining enterprises would not only provide jobs for thousands of Balochi citizens, they would also provide ongoing financial support as part of their social charter for the continuing development and support of social projects.
In summary the Foundation’s strategic objective is to create an algorithm for sustainable development for this region that it so desperately needs.