Engro Foundation, the social investment arm of Engro Corporation, has announced National Disability & Development Forum (NDF) and ConnectHear as the two recipients of I Am The Change (IATC) Impact Awards 2022.

Initiated in 2012, IATC is the flagship initiative of Engro Foundation to recognize and reward philanthropic and social enterprises that are creating an impact in the development sector. The IATC Impact Awards 2022 attracted more than 100 entries in the categories of Social Development and Social Enterprise. The entries were adjudicated by the IATC team at Engro Foundation, along with an independent jury comprising Laila Jamil (Director, British Council), Madiha Rehman (Co-Founder & CEO, Phygital), Muhammad Waqas (Co-Founder & CEO, WonderTree), Zehra Mehdi Aneek (Director ESG and Sustainability, K-Electric) and Fauzia Viqar (Chair, SPDC).

Following an extensive review of the applications, National Disability & Development Forum (Social Development) and ConnectHear (Social Enterprise) were selected as the award recipients. Each recipient has been awarded a cash prize of PKR 2.5 million in recognition of their efforts and support to scale up the initiatives.

Since 2014, National Disability & Development Forum (NDF) has been striving to empower people with disabilities through awareness and skill development, while also focusing on disability rights, health, environment, poverty reduction and gender mainstreaming in underprivileged communities. To date, NDF has screened out more than 1000 children with disabilities and retained 200 children for rehabilitation services that will improve their overall quality of life.

ConnectHear is a social enterprise focusing on the next generation of assistive technology for deaf and hard of hearing communities around the world. Launched in 2017, ConnectHear has provided over 1 million minutes of in-person and virtual sign language interpretation to positively impact over 100,000 lives across Pakistan. It has also taught sign language to more than 5000 individuals to improve sign language literacy and partnered with over 80 organizations to make their services and employment opportunities accessible for persons with disabilities.

Karachi Down Syndrome Program and Disabled Welfare Association were recognized as the runners-up in Social Development category, while Science Fuse emerged as the runner-up in Social Enterprise space.

According to Ghias Khan – President & CEO of Engro Corporation and Chairman Board of Trustees of Engro Foundation, “I am delighted by the response to the I Am The Change Impact Awards 2022. Each of us has a responsibility towards Pakistan, and it is heartening to learn about the fantastic work being carried out by various organizations on education, gender and disability rights. IATC will continue to expand its reach and recognise change-makers for good in Pakistan.”

Favad Soomro, Head of Engro Foundation, added that, “Our mission is to empower social organizations to make a large and sustainable impact. We are hopeful that our humble support and the IATC Awards 2022 experience will help these organizations to scale up their impact and improve live across Pakistan.”