Dear friends of ESSF,

We are really thankful to your co-operation in the shape of financial support for the educational activities of the International Institute for Research and Education – Islamabad (IIRE-Islamabad).

We received €1010 during the 2014-2017 period.

We are working under very harsh conditions in Pakistan.

Our aim is to establish an effective institution to get together progressive forces across Pakistan and strengthen their solidarity capacities in a country where situations of human rights crisis and humanitarian disasters are unfortunately too common.

This is a very difficult task. Fundamentalist forces have a very strong hold in Pakistan. They control thousands of seminaries (madrassas or religious school) where the youth is indoctrinated to join radical Islamist movements. They control as well charities, using situations of humanitarian crisis to extend they hold – big local political families will do the same to increase their clientelist network.

Left-wing forces are very weak to counter such a situation. In fact, there is no broad institutional mechanism for the educational training of youth.

Together with other progressive organisations, we hope that we’ll be able to gradually overcome the situation.

We again thank you for your help, which in fact is very important for us to continue our project.

With regards,

Nisar Shah,

IIRE Islamabad