Our Story

A group of dedicated humanitarians (college students, entrepreneurs and professionals), having received their education at high-end schools and witnessing the education inequality first-hand, came together to tackle this problem, and Orange Tree Foundation (OTF) was founded. With the aim of narrowing education inequality, OTF commenced its work in 2011 in Karachi with only 8 students and we prepared them to gain admission at mainstream schools in the city.

Today OTF has given out 2000+ across Pakistan and continues to provide scholarships to students in order to lessen the educational disparity amongst the people of Pakistan. OTF believes in creating equal educational opportunities to determined and deserving students while providing a holistic solution along with scholarships in order to ensure a smooth educational experience for students and their families.

Future Rocketeer

Milestones With OTF – Ghulam Muhammad Palli
I am from Umerkot and I’m working on building rockets as a final year student studying Mechanical Engineering from NUST PNEC, Karachi. I chose engineering because this is a creative profession and I am a creative person.

Innovating new designs and new mechanisms is something which I aim to achieve. As for rockets, from childhood I’ve been watching space movies and they’ve always inspired me. I am very fond of astronauts, although, now I do not really want to be an astronaut because they go into space to work, but I want to work from my land, from Pakistan. I want to work on the space industry for Pakistan and for the youth in Pakistan to pursue rocketry in Pakistan.

I found it very challenging to fund my studies, I belong to a family with very low financial income. However, there are good and supportive people present like the OTF Family. I pay my fees through a scholarship and I am living in a hostel, OTF sponsors my hostel dues and all my living expenses. I contacted OTF through my faculty members in June 2022 and OTF is like a second family to me because they support me like family and no other organization does that. Not only do they support me in hostel dues but they have also supported me in every scenario. Two months ago I was working on a drone and we were participating(in a drone building competition) in Teknofest(Turkey), I did not have the finances for a visa or ticket and OTF supported me by sponsoring my visa and ticket for Teknofest, that’s why we were able to represent Pakistan at Teknofest in Turkey, solely because of Orange Tree Foundation. In the future I also want to repay them for what they invested in me. They are like a family. Whenever I face any issues, I contact them and they support me. They sponsored my travel for Teknofest without much paperwork or hassle. They sponsored me instantly. Normally such processes take a long time for approval. This is why I say they are like family to me.

I was representing Pakistan at Teknofest where we were placed 18th out of 93 international teams. Another big achievement for me is winning two awards, at a competition held annually in the UK. We participated virtually in 2021 and we placed 2nd amongst 37 international teams from around the world.

Nothing is impossible, however there is difficulty in trying to achieve such a difficult task but believe in God, everything will become very easy. Just start work and start doing something. If you fall, rise again. As God promises to help those to strive. If you don’t strive, you will not achieve anything. But when you do achieve something which is difficult, you will be extremely satisfied.

Breast Cancer Survivor

Milestones With OTF
I am very thankful to Allah and then to OTF for my new life. I am glad Pakistan has such an organization which is providing holistic support. OTF not only gave an educational opportunity to my children but extended their help to us during our financial and medical challenges which helped me overcome an extremely difficult phase in my life. I’m a housewife and I live with my husband, three kids and in-laws under one roof. My husband is a van driver and his earning is not sufficient enough as the sole breadwinner for our house, therefore for some extra income he drives a rickshaw on daily wage. I found out about OTF through my sister in-law whose children were studying under OTF’s scholarship so I applied for my children. OTF provided scholarships to my children, initially all three of my kids studied at the OTF Montessori, and now under their scholarship support they’re enrolled in reputable schools in grade 3, 2 and Nursery. I found out about my breast cancer diagnosis last year through a breast cancer workshop facilitated by OTF. OTF time to time conducts various types of workshops, but this workshop turned out to be miraculous for me, if it wasn’t for this workshop I would have never found out what my body was going through. This informative workshop made me reflect upon my shoulder ache. I was struggling with it for the past few months but kept ignoring it with painkiller consumptions. After the workshop I interacted with the OTF Healthcare Team and on first priority they got my screening, mammography and other necessary testing done which lead to my diagnosis of breast cancer. Alhamdulillah due to an early diagnosis I wasn’t required chemotherapy or radiation post-surgery. Ever since I was diagnosed OTF has assisted me and been cooperative throughout. All my medical expenses of the surgery by the renowned breast surgeon Dr. Rufina Soomro and till date monthly medicines and quarterly consultations with the surgeon are borne by OTF. They have been a great support system for me on my road to recovery, where I lost all hopes, because neither I had resources for my treatment, nor my kids were grown enough to look after themselves. I urge women who are 40 years or above to get themselves screened, and never ignore yourself because even slightest pain or change could be a warning sign you shouldn’t let go. From my personal experience where the only symptom I had was an ache. As a mother, if you’re healthy only then you’ll be able to provide good conditioning to your children. When my children became OTF scholars, my qualification was just matric but OTF provided me the opportunity to complete my intermediate privately and brought me a step closer to becoming financially independent. I was set to apply for jobs and become financially independent but just then my diagnosis of breast cancer halted my career growth. I am trying my best to recover and regain back to normal life so I can contribute to my household income. My only dream is for my children to study and succeed in life. From my own experience I have learnt that today if I was educated from a mainstream institute, I could be of more help to them in their studies and overall provide them with a better standard of living. With understanding this importance, I don’t want my children to regret the same in their future, for this I’ll take all possible measures and that’s the only reason I got in touch with OTF so that my children’s future and life is different from that of mine

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