Farq Parega: Are Your Charitable Donations Going to Those Who Need It the Most?

Farq Parega is an initiative taken by like-minded individuals who wish to raise awareness about the benefits of safe charity. The idea behind this initiative is to help people realize that when they donate blindly, their donations may end up in the wrong hands. And those wrong hands could use their donations to harm society.

When we donate, we do so with the purest of intentions, but often overlook the fact that donating without doing due diligence may actually do more harm than good. We are living in a volatile world, where some people want to impose their ideologies, their notions and their values on others. This is the reality we live in, and turning a blind eye hurts more than it helps.

Deep down in our hearts, we suspect that many organizations mask their original intentions with a charitable cause to trick us into giving donations. The root cause of the problem is we don’t consider giving blindly as a problem.

A report published in the media mentioned that 1 in every 4 people in Pakistan don’t know where their donations are going. A news report published in Voice of America (VoA) highlighted that the “annual operational budget of terrorist organizations is from 5 million rupees [about $48,000] to 25 million rupees [about $240,000].” A large portion of their funds come from our pockets, which we inadvertently give them when we donate with our eyes closed.

Taking the Charge

Someone has to take ownership, highlight this problem, and educate the people about the repercussions of donating blindly. Farq Parega took it upon itself to do this difficult task with a series of videos and social media posts.

These videos were shot with only one purpose in mind – to help people understand the core issues and develop a higher degree of diligence and scrutiny. In each video, Farq Parega showed a donation collection point, where people normally donate with the intention to help others, not knowing that their money will be used by banned organizations to fulfill their nefarious purposes.

How not to be an accessory to violence and extremism?

It’s not that simple to research about each and every organization or individual you wish to help. But we need to ask ourselves if we want to help those who would use our money to harm the very society we live in.

Helping others is the noblest deed in every culture and religion, but since we are responsible for our actions, it is our responsibility to consider few things mentioned below before giving charity:

Five things to consider before giving charity to any organization:

• What is their agenda?
• What have they done so far?
• What is the impact of their actions on society?
• What makes them reliable?
• How old is the organization and what is its history?

Four things to consider before giving charity to any individual:

• Who is the person?
• Why does the person need money?
• How the person is going to use the money?
• What can you do to ensure that your money will not be misused?

Ask yourself these questions before giving to ensure that your donations reach the right people. However, it is always prudent to give to someone you know like your friends, family or neighbors. Farq Parega, only when we will start donating responsibly.