How we work
Everything we do runs through the communities themselves. Local people help decide what is needed, take part in delivering it and look after it once we have gone.
Monitoring and evaluation
We follow every programme through five stages, so we can show what it achieved, fix what is not working and carry the lessons into the next project.
- 1
Planning
We assess needs, consult communities and other stakeholders, run baseline surveys and agree measurable indicators.
- 2
Design
We build intervention models that fit the local context, with clear indicators, data collection methods and reporting — and gender inclusion built in from the start.
- 3
Implementation
Field teams, community activists and partners deliver the work while ongoing monitoring flags problems early.
- 4
Evaluation
Mid-term and final evaluations use both numbers and people’s own accounts, together with independent reviews and stakeholder feedback.
- 5
Learning & sharing
We record what worked and what did not, and feed those lessons into new projects through review meetings and workshops.
Where we work
From the slums of Rawalpindi to flood-prone villages in South Punjab, displacement camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and earthquake-hit Azad Jammu & Kashmir. Our head office is in House #64-S, Service Road East, I-10/4, Islamabad, Pakistan, with a regional office in Multan, Punjab, Pakistan.
- Punjab (20 Districts / Tehsils)
- Rawalpindi · Rajan Pur · Jam Pur · Rakhfazilpur · Noorpur · Manjowala · Nowshera Gharbi · Shahpur · Muzaffar Garh · Kot Addu · Ghazi Ghat · Mandi Bahauddin · Layyah · Jhelum · Gujrat · Palgan · Shah Sadar Din · Basti Malana · D.G. Khan · Attock · Chakwal
- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (19 Districts / Tehsils)
- Peshawar · Takal Payan · Takal Bala · Palosai · Bannu · Shamai Khel · Nar Jafar Khan · Ghoriwala · Kala Khel Masti Khan · Buner · Charsadda · Hangu · Kohat · Ali Zai · Kohistan · Mansehra · Mardan · Swat · Orakzai Agency
- Sindh (1 District)
- Tando Allah Yar · Rain-affected districts
- Balochistan (1 District)
- Quetta
- Federal & Special Areas
- Islamabad (Head Office) · Azad Jammu & Kashmir (Earthquake Relief)
Accomplishments across Pakistan
Totals delivered across community clinics, clean water schemes, training sessions and disaster response.
- 160medical and mobile health camps
- 30trainings for traditional birth attendants
- 3,468hygiene kits distributed
- 265hand pumps installed
- 250water quality tests
- 86water tanks installed
- 10water filtration plants rehabilitated
- 48first aid, firefighting and rescue trainings
- 140,000people a year at our primary health centres
- 80clean delivery kits distributed
- 300jerry cans for safe water storage
- 20training-of-trainers sessions
- Tetanus toxoid (TT) vaccination for pregnant women
- Training of presiding and polling officers
- Voter education programmes
- Non-formal education and skills development
Implementation & Safeguards
Explore how we mobilize communities, guarantee asset durability, and satisfy stringent institutional audit standards.
Before initiating any capital project, we form community-based Village Development Committees (VDCs) and Water Management Committees. Local residents co-design the project, contribute local in-kind support, and appoint caretakers. This transforms passive recipients into active asset custodians.
Assets are formally handed over to trained local management committees with an established maintenance fund, local supply-chain links for spare parts, and established linkages to local government departments (such as WASA, Public Health Engineering, or District Health authorities).
All procurement adheres to strict competitive bidding guidelines, third-party technical verifications, and anti-corruption safeguards. Every financial transaction is reconciled against verified delivery invoices and subject to annual external audits.
Friends Foundation holds valid EAD NOCs and Category 'A' status, enabling seamless partnership with international development organizations (including past work with UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, USAID, Save the Children, and FPAP). We adhere to global Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) and strict child-safeguarding policies.
Explore our programmes
Read about each of our seven areas of work in detail.
Social mobilisation
Social mobilisation is the backbone of our strategy. Before any project starts, we connect with the people a community already trusts — activists, elders, religious leaders and opinion makers — and work through them. That trust is what lets a small team reach a whole district.
Adaptable
We fit our work to each community’s needs and build relationships that outlast a single project.
Participatory
Communities take part in every stage — planning, design, delivery and evaluation.
Community-driven
Local activists lead service delivery and awareness, so ownership stays in the community.
Culturally appropriate
We work with local norms and through trusted people: elders, teachers and religious leaders.
Inclusive
Women, men, children, transgender people and persons with disabilities all have a say. No one is left behind.
Replicable and low-cost
Modest resources and trained local people, in a model other communities can copy.
Three ways into a community
Community-based institutions
Community and village organisations, youth groups, welfare societies, mohallah committees, school management committees, local government representatives and women’s support groups. They help plan, run and monitor projects — and take them over when we leave.
Key community individuals
Elders, social activists, teachers, Lady Health Workers and Visitors, community midwives, artists and young volunteers who carry messages and mobilise their neighbours.
Channels for information
FM radio spots, robocalls, cable TV, posters, flyers, banners and stickers, alongside Facebook, WhatsApp and TikTok.