The Kashmir Orphan Relief Trust (KORT) will host four fundraising dinners throughout England in the upcoming weeks to raise money for its hospital in Azad Kashmir, which offers free treatment to those in need.  

KORT was created by Choudhary Mohammed Akhtar and a group of friends after the devastating 2005 earthquakes in Kashmir. Akhtar, with the aid of his friends, family, and local community, raised over £118,000 in five days to provide tents, blankets, food, and medicine for the worst-affected areas. 

However, when Akhtar and his friends were in Kashmir, they encountered a group of orphaned children who didn’t have a place to stay, food to eat, or fresh clothes, so they decided to create KORT to offer long-term support for orphans.  

Since then, they have created the KORT Educational & Residential Complex, which finished construction in 2016 and now houses 1,500 orphaned children. It has facilities such as a laundry room, kitchen, dining space, and a mosque built to accommodate all 1,500 children, as well as a washroom and ablution facilities for disabled people.  

To continue funding and upgrading the Complex, KORT hosts a range of events and dinners to raise money. Earlier this year, KORT hosted four separate dinners throughout England: Peterborough, Leeds, Bradford, and their latest event in Oldham was on 28th June.  

The events have raised over £2.5 million, which will be used to build an accessible healthcare facility for the Complex and aid millions of lives around the Kashmir area. The facility will feature an A&E department and services such as radiology, outpatient care, paediatrics, pathology, pulmonary, dental, and eye clinics.  

Akhtar, chairman of KOTR, said: “We are extending our services to those affected by natural disasters and poverty by providing access to free healthcare services to the people of Kashmir and Pakistan.  

We have committed to developing a hospital and on-site educational facilities – a vision to establish a first-of-its-kind medical centre stemming from a profound need for accessible and quality healthcare services in the region. The healthcare system operates under strain, receiving just 2.5% of the government budget.  

This insufficient allocation has resulted in shortages in healthcare. Along with providing accessible quality medical services, we are going beyond saving lives by providing training facilities for medics, nurses and more.”  

KOTR has already planned four additional fundraisers for July. There will be one in Luton on 5th July, Birmingham on 6th July, Slough on 7th July and Dewsbury on 9th July. You can find more information here