A quiet foundation, a long memory.
The Almas and A. Qadir Foundation was established in 2011 by the children of Almas and Air Vice Marshal Abdul Qadir. It exists for one reason: to continue, in their name, the kind of practical generosity that shaped them.
Sadaq-e-jaria
In Islam, sadaq-e-jariadescribes a continuing charity — a good deed whose benefit keeps reaching others after the giver is gone. A built well. A school. A trained physician. A child fed. The work outlives the hand that began it.
Almas and A. Qadir lived modest, dignified lives that took the dignity of others as a given. The Foundation named for them carries that disposition forward into one concrete corner of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
One campus, five programs
Everything happens from the same modest campus: The Qalam School (founded 2010, the founding project), the Qalam Vocational Wing (sewing, embroidery, carpentry), the AAQ Health Program (clinic, full-time physician, pharmacy), the AAQ Food & Ration Program (daily meals, monthly flour rations, Ramadan rations), and the AAQ Uplift Program (rickshaws, fruit stalls, sewing setups, housing for families in crisis).
The Foundation is registered as a charitable trust in Pakistan. The work is small enough to know every family it touches, and disciplined enough to publish an audited financial statement every year.
US donations are channelled through Friends of Qalam School, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the United States (Tax ID 45-4910908). The two entities work in coordination: the Foundation operates the programs on the ground in Rawalpindi; Friends of Qalam School channels US tax-deductible donations to support them.
Family and friends
The Foundation has no paid fundraising staff. The board is a small group of family members and longstanding friends, most of whom have spent careers in medicine, education, or development. Day-to-day operations on the ground are led by the Principal of the Qalam School. There is no overhead beyond the audited administrative line in the financials.