One woman spoke after saying she donated £40,000 to a British charity to build an orphanage in Pakistan, but says the paintings are still fully finished seven years later.
Ishrat Baig dreamed of building an orphanage in his parents’ home in Pakistan. Based in Birmingham, he had managed to save £40,000 working as an account manager and got in touch with Penny Appeal.
On its website, Penny Appeal states that it is helping to reduce poverty in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa by “offering water solutions, organizing mass meals, supporting the care of orphans, and offering food and emergency medical assistance. “
The West Yorkshire-based charity, which targets Muslim donors, raised £20. 6 million in 2022 for the Charity Commission for England and Wales.
After some discussions, the Baig charity runs orphanages in Pakistan and The Gambia.
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After making the donation in 2017, he said his orphanage would be part of a larger site called Medina Orphan Home Complex, which will be built in Sohawa, in Pakistan’s East Punjab province.
But speaking to the BBC, Baig said he had been told the structure would take around a year. Seven years later, she says the orphanage still hasn’t opened. However, the charity said the first phase of the complex had been completed and young people would move into space this month.
Baig said his photo was also used for promotional purposes to inspire donations from others at the time.
Asking for updates, he said he received a number of apologies for the delays in completing the project. In 2021, 4 years after his donation, Ishrat threatened to go public with the delays on social media. He says he was given a meeting with the then-executive director of Penny Appeal.
At that meeting, he asked for the money back, but says he was told the charity could no longer pay it back. At the end of 2023, they sent her a photo of the orphanage and told her that it was all finished.
After planning his visit, he said the inauguration wouldn’t take place until February of this year. However, Penny Appeal denied the allegations and said Ms. Baig took a tour of the space in December but turned it down due to “her own availability. “.
In September 2023, the Charity Commission issued a Penny Appeal with a separate official warning about what it called “a breach of trust, duty and other misconduct and/or mismanagement. “
A spokesperson for Penny Appeal told Express. co. uk: “We are grateful to Ms Baig for her generous donation which has enabled us to fund the structure of a youth home in Pakistan. This house joins nine others that make up an entire complex. a school and a mosque, providing a network for vulnerable young people living in and around Islamabad. We can verify that the first phase of the complex has already been built and that young people will be welcome there from March.
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