Aman Foundation is a not-for-profit social corporate enterprise mainly focusing on health and education, and have been operating in Pakistan since 2008. Under the umbrella of Aman Foundation, there is Aman Health which operates the only life-saving ambulance service in Karachi, a TeleHealth service which caters to medical queries free of cost via telephone, under the Aman Community Health Program (ACHP), a clinic operating in Ibrahim Hyderi, with an outreach clinic and door-to-door medical facility in various parts of Karachi. This is all part of the health eco-system being developed by the Aman Foundation. Under the Foundation’s education initiative, Aman Tech stands as the largest skills development and vocational training program in Pakistan.
Till date, a total of 6,700 students have graduated from the foundation with an employment rate of 74%, the highest in the industry.
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Speaking to IDG Pakistan is Malik Ahmad Jalal, CEO Aman Foundation; graduate of Harvard Kennedy School, who has over 15 years of experience working internationally, and has a background in Chartered Accountancy. In his own words, his return back to the home ground landed him straight in Korangi as head of the Foundation, one that’s been a rewarding one thus far. According to Jalal, the Foundation focuses not just on technical skills but on life skills as well. He adds:
“I call it discipline, empathy and collaboration. I think it is important in the long term to be good citizens. We focus on those values and qualities that every individual should have to be a professional and ethical human being and the feedback we receive from the industry for our students who are employed them has been very positive.”
Speaking about Aman Foundation’s flagship product, the Aman Ambulance service, he said, “We started off with ten ambulances now we have a network of 80 ambulances across Karachi. The Aman Ambulance Service is the only life-saving ambulance service operating in Pakistan with I/O certified paramedics and doctors on board. The ambulances are equipped with life-saving medical equipment and medicines which allow the paramedics to monitor the patient’s condition and even administer drugs to the patients if they are in a life threatening situation and stabilize them as traffic in Karachi can be a big challenge in Pakistan.”
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He also added, “Aman ambulances have delivered over eighty babies since 2009 on the roads of Karachi in order to save the lives of both mother and child.”
The Aman Foundation has also partnered with the Govt. of Sindh under the public/private partnership node to operate the Ambulance Service in the Thatta and Sujawal areas.
Speaking about Aman Foundation’s partnership with the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) he said, “We are very proud of our partnership with IBA. Dr. Ishrat Husain is an icon in the education sector and has done a great job of delivering on world class systems. To support the local education system, Aman built the Aman Tower at the IBA city campus followed by the Center for Entrepreneurial Development, at the main campus.”
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Speaking about what the future holds for Aman Foundation, Malik Ahmad Jalal said
“We will focus more on vocational training, especially on vocational training programs for women so that they can work from home or freelance to make their livelihoods.”
Aman Foundation is also set to go into the digital space when it comes to training. They are currently serving the basic market, and the industry is quite big. They are working towards changing the traditional classrooms when it comes to providing education.
“Anything that leads to institutionalization is a good practice, whether it is a corporate entity or government entity or even a social enterprise. Institutionalization means relying less on human beings and more on processes and systems that deliver value or a service. So the best practice so far is to have a process based approach. ” he said speaking about some of the best practices at Aman Foundation.
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Aman Foundation realizes that in order to solve the social problems in Pakistan, one needs to have the best people and that they have to be able to retain and motivate them in order to get the best out of those people.
Malik Ahmad Jalal speaking to IDG also revealed that he is addicted to his iPhone, along with that Twitter plays a big role in his life and that he is in competition with his own wife when it comes to followers on Twitter! His love for FoodPanda and WhatsApp tells us of the social foodie that he may be!
Interview conducted/edited by: Team IDG
