Hazara's School Town and Its Hidden Hardship: Working With an NGO in Abbottabad

Abbottabad is known across Pakistan for its schools, colleges and cool summers, so it can be hard to admit that many families in the town and its hill villages are struggling. If you have been looking for an NGO in Abbottabad to help with a student’s laptop, a month of groceries or a family court case, you can apply to Peace and Humanity Welfare Organization (PHWO) from home.

A word on where we are: PHWO works out of one address in Larkana, Sindh. We have no branch, centre or team in Abbottabad or anywhere in Hazara. Hazara families contact us online, by calling, or a volunteer who lives near you. Each service costs nothing, and requests are verified and assessed before anything is arranged.

Hindko hills and a growing town

Abbottabad District had 1,419,072 residents in the 2023 Census, about 23 percent of them urban, and it has one of the lowest growth rates in the province at roughly 1 percent a year (PBS table 1). The district is different from the Pashto-speaking plains: the Census mother-tongue table shows Hindko as the first language of about 87 percent of residents, with Pashto and Urdu far behind.

Households here are smaller than in Peshawar, averaging about six people, but many depend on one government or army salary, a pension, or remittances. When a pension stops after a death, a widow can be left with nothing overnight.

Students who need a device

Thousands of young people come to Abbottabad for school, medical college, engineering or a university degree. Many come from villages in Galiyat, Havelian or Lora, and from poorer Hazara districts. A laptop or a working smartphone is now needed for assignments, online tests and freelance work, and a cheap one still costs more than a family earns in a month.

A device for study or work is the single most common thing people ask PHWO for. You can apply through Request help. Include your admission letter or student card and a live photo, and explain the course and why you need the device. Help is arranged where a verified need can be met; there is no guarantee.

Getting legal advice from an NGO in Abbottabad searches lead to

The Peshawar High Court has a bench in Abbottabad, and the district courts sit in the town, so most Hazara family litigation passes through here. Most of what reaches PHWO from Hazara on the legal side is family work: maintenance claims by mothers, khula petitions and custody fights.

With Free legal aid, a volunteer advocate reads your documents and tells you what can be done. Nobody needs an FIR to apply. Urgent custody hearings go to the front of the queue. You can follow the Abbottabad bench’s cause list on the Peshawar High Court website.

Two more places to ask for a free lawyer are the Abbottabad bar and the committee for legal empowerment attached to the district judiciary.

Earthquakes, landslides and winter

The October 2005 earthquake tore through Hazara and Azad Kashmir. Abbottabad itself was spared the worst, but it became the base for treating injured people from Balakot, Mansehra and beyond, and many families from those valleys later settled here.

Today the risks are landslides on hill roads during the monsoon, and harsh winters for families in the upper villages who cannot afford gas cylinders or warm clothing. If your home has been damaged by a slide or heavy rain, send photos with your request.

Seasonal work in the Galiyat and what happens in winter

For many households in Nathia Gali, Dunga Gali and the villages above the town, money comes in a rush between May and September. Men drive jeeps, cook in hotels, rent out horses or sell corn on the roadside to visitors from Islamabad and Punjab. When the tourists go home, that income stops, and the family lives off whatever was saved. A bad summer, a road closure after a landslide, or an illness during the season can leave a family in debt to the grocer by January.

In that case, spell it out in the form: how much is owed, to whom, and what the family earns in a normal season. Debt and ration requests are assessed the same way as any other, and a clear explanation helps the person checking your case understand it quickly.

Public services in Abbottabad

• Ayub Teaching Hospital, the main government teaching hospital for Hazara.
• Rescue 1122 for emergencies and road accidents on the Karakoram Highway; 15 for police.
• BISP office for eligible women (SMS your CNIC to 8171). Details are on the BISP website.
• Government zakat is paid through Abbottabad’s District Zakat Committee; ask at your local zakat committee for the forms.
• For snowbound roads, slides or flash floods, the provincial disaster authority answers on 1700.

Give, sponsor or volunteer from Abbottabad

Abbottabad has retired officers, teachers and doctors who often want to help but don’t know whom to trust. Through Donate you can send cash or goods while living in Hazara or overseas, and your Zakat and Sadaqah are passed on complete to people in need. Sponsor a case lets you back one verified family.

Students and graduates can join as volunteers to check documents or translate requests written in Hindko; lawyers at the Abbottabad courts are needed most. Every volunteer earns a certificate, an appreciation letter and an experience letter. Start on the Volunteer page.

Public services in Abbottabad you can also use

• Peshawar High Court, Abbottabad BenchAppeals and writs for Hazara
• District and Sessions Courts Abbottabad (family courts)Khula, maintenance and custody
• District Bar Association AbbottabadReferral to advocates
• District Legal Empowerment Committee AbbottabadLegal aid for poor litigants
• Ayub Teaching HospitalGovernment teaching hospital
• Rescue 1122Dial 1122
• PoliceDial 15
• BISP office AbbottabadSMS CNIC to 8171
• District Zakat Committee AbbottabadGovernment zakat
• PDMA Khyber PakhtunkhwaHelpline 1700

These are public or independent services, listed to help you. They are not part of PHWO.

Frequently asked questions