At STEP, our mission is rooted in our name: Support, Train, and Empower People. Founded in July 2012 by Adnan Javeed, STEP began with a simple yet powerful goal—to provide Ration (groceries), particularly to widows and elderly, who had little to no income to afford food for themselves their families. In the first two years, STEP focused on combating hunger, delivering essential food supplies to those in desperate need.

However, we quickly realized that to bring a long-term change in society, we needed to focus on the root cause of the problem and break the cycle of poverty. We found that people were stuck in the cycle of poverty because they did not have access to the necessary capital to start or sustain their small street businesses. People would not opt for interest-based financing: one because of the high interest rates, two because their religion prohibits them from dealing with interest. We came up with the idea of an interest-free microfinance program, designed to provide families with easy access to interest-free capital to earn their livelihood.

As our Interest-free microfinance program helped dozens of families break the cycle of poverty, we identified a huge gap in the education sector that needed to be filled to eradicate poverty. We established a scholarship program to support academically strong students from low-income backgrounds.

In 2022, we reached an exciting milestone with the launch of UpSkill Pakistan, a dedicated scholarship program focused on sponsoring higher education in Pakistan for students pursuing degrees in STEM fields particularly engineering and IT related programs. UpSkill Pakistan Scholarship program is empowering ambitious and talented students who dream to bring substantial change in their personal and social space.

 At present, we are developing a very transformative educational project that aims to provide financial support to the best graduates of Pakistan in STEM fields to pursue master programs in STEM fields in the top-ranking universities of the US.

Although under our Support category, we provide resources and aid for food, medical treatments or disaster relief, our focus is to Empower people through education & employment support.

STEP’s journey is one of transformation, hope, and resilience. What started as a small effort to feed the hungry has grown into a movement that equips people with the skills, knowledge, and resources they need to thrive.

Let’s join hands and build a better world—one step at a time. Donate Now