Privacy Policy
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Last updated: 20 October 2026
At Sarwar Foundation, the trust of our donors, volunteers, patients, students and partners matters to us as much as the work we do. We are committed to keeping your personal information safe, using it only for the purposes you would expect, and being open about how we handle it.
This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, when we may share it, how long we keep it and the rights you have over it. It applies to sarwarfoundation.org.pk and to the work of Sarwar Foundation in Pakistan, including our hospitals, schools, HunarGah skills centers, medical camps and relief programs.
Our promise in short: we never sell your personal information, we never share it with other organisations for their own marketing, and we never store your card details on our website.
In this policy:
- 1. Who we are
- 2. Information we collect about our supporters
- 3. How we use your information
- 4. Our legal basis for using your information
- 5. Card payments and financial information
- 6. Information about the people we serve
- 7. When we share personal information
- 8. Keeping your information secure
- 9. Information shared across borders
- 10. How long we keep personal information
- 11. Your rights over your personal information
- 12. Cookies
- 13. Social media
- 14. Children
- 15. Links to other websites
- 16. Changes to this policy
- 17. Questions and complaints
1. Who we are
Sarwar Foundation is a charitable organisation founded in 2000 by Muhammad Sarwar. We work to save and transform lives in Pakistan through free healthcare, education, clean drinking water, skills training, food support, interest-free loans and emergency relief.
Sarwar Foundation is responsible for the personal information described in this policy. Our head office is: Sarwar Foundation, Office No. 1, Second Floor, Qube Center, Divine Gardens, New Airport Road, Lahore, Pakistan, 54000.
Our supporters in the United Kingdom may also be in contact with our UK office at 320 Victoria Road, Glasgow G42 7RP. Where the UK office handles your information, it does so in line with this policy and with the data protection law that applies in the UK.
2. Information we collect about our supporters
We collect personal information when you choose to share it with us, for example:
- When you donate: your name, email address, phone number, billing address, the amount, the type of donation (such as Zakat, Sadaqah or a general donation), the program or cause you choose and any message you add.
- When you donate offline: the details on your bank transfer receipt, such as your name, bank, amount and transaction reference.
- When you volunteer: your name, phone number, email address (optional) and the area you would like to help in.
- When you contact us: your name, email address, phone number and the content of your message, whether you write to us through the website, by email, by phone or by post.
- When you subscribe to our newsletter: your email address.
- When you create an account (optional): your email address, a password that only you know, your billing details and your donation history.
- When you use our website: technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device type and the pages you visit, collected through cookies and server logs. See our Cookie Policy for details.
You do not need to create an account to donate. You can always donate as a guest.
3. How we use your information
We use the personal information of our supporters to:
- Process your donation and send you a confirmation and receipt
- Record your donation against the program or cause you chose, and whether it is Zakat, Sadaqah or a general donation
- Confirm offline donations made by bank transfer
- Contact you about volunteering when you have asked to volunteer
- Answer your questions, requests and feedback
- Send you our newsletter and updates on our work, only where you have agreed to receive them
- Manage your optional donor account and show you your donation history
- Keep our website, our donors and our payments secure and prevent fraud
- Meet our legal, tax, audit and accounting obligations
- Improve our website and the way we communicate with supporters
We will only send you newsletters or updates by email, SMS or WhatsApp if you have agreed to receive them. Every email we send includes a simple way to unsubscribe, and you can ask us to stop at any time.
4. Our legal basis for using your information
We only use your personal information where we have a valid reason to do so:
- Your consent, for example when you subscribe to our newsletter or agree to share your story or photo. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
- To fulfil our agreement with you, for example to process the donation you asked us to make or to manage the account you created.
- Legal obligations, for example keeping financial records for tax and audit purposes, or responding to a valid request from a law enforcement agency.
- Our legitimate interests as a charity, for example keeping our website secure, preventing fraud and keeping accurate records of our supporters, as long as this does not override your rights and interests.
5. Card payments and financial information
Online card donations are processed by our payment provider, Mastercard Payment Gateway Services, on their own secure hosted payment page. Your card number, expiry date and security code are entered directly on that page and are never stored on our website or seen by our staff. We only receive a confirmation of whether the payment was successful, together with a reference number.
Our payment provider is certified against the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the global security standard for card payments.
For offline donations, we use the transfer details and receipt you send us only to confirm your donation and issue your receipt.
6. Information about the people we serve
To deliver free healthcare, education, skills training and relief, we also collect information about the people who use our services, such as patients at our hospitals and medical camps, students at our schools, women training at HunarGah centers, and families receiving ration packs, loans or emergency aid.
- Patients: name, age, contact details and the medical information needed to diagnose and treat them. Medical records are confidential and are only seen by the doctors, nurses and staff involved in a patient's care.
- Students: the details needed to enrol and teach a child, such as their name, age, class, results and parent or guardian contact details.
- HunarGah trainees and loan recipients: the details needed to enrol them, track their progress and, for loans, manage repayments.
- Relief recipients: the details needed to make sure aid reaches the families who need it and to avoid duplication.
Health information and information about children is especially sensitive. We protect it with extra care and only use it to provide and improve our services, to keep people safe, or where the law requires it.
Stories and photos: we only publish a beneficiary's photo, name or story on our website, social media or reports with their consent, and for children with the consent of a parent or guardian. Anyone can ask us to remove their story or photo at any time.
7. When we share personal information
We do not sell, rent or trade personal information, and we never share it with other organisations for their own marketing. We only share it where it is needed and where we have a valid reason, for example:
- With our payment provider, to process card donations securely
- With trusted service providers who help us run our work, such as website hosting, email delivery and secure data storage. They may only use the information to provide their service to us
- With our partner organisations that deliver a program together with us, only where needed to deliver that program
- With auditors, tax authorities and regulators where the law requires it
- With law enforcement agencies if we receive a valid legal request
- With emergency services where it is needed to protect someone's life or safety
Wherever we share personal information, we make sure the organisation keeps it secure and uses it only for the agreed purpose.
8. Keeping your information secure
We take appropriate technical and organisational steps to protect personal information from loss, misuse and unauthorised access. These include:
- A secure, encrypted (HTTPS) connection across our website
- Card payments handled only on our payment provider's secure page
- Firewall and security monitoring on our website
- Access to personal information limited to staff and volunteers who need it for their role
- Confidentiality for medical and other sensitive records
No method of sending information over the internet is completely secure, but we work hard to protect your information and will act quickly if a problem is discovered.
9. Information shared across borders
Some of our service providers, such as our payment provider and website hosting, may store or process information on servers outside Pakistan. Where this happens, we only use providers that apply strong security standards to protect your information.
10. How long we keep personal information
We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purpose it was collected, or as long as the law requires. As a general guide:
- Donation and financial records: for as long as required by tax, audit and accounting rules
- Donor accounts: until you ask us to close your account
- Newsletter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe
- Volunteer details: while you volunteer with us, and for a reasonable time afterwards unless you ask us to delete them
- Messages and enquiries: for as long as needed to deal with them and any follow-up
- Medical and school records: for the period required by health and education rules
When information is no longer needed, we delete it securely or make it anonymous.
11. Your rights over your personal information
You have the following rights over the personal information we hold about you:
- Right to be informed: to know how and why we use your information, as set out in this policy
- Right of access: to ask what information we hold about you and to receive a copy
- Right to correction: to ask us to correct information that is wrong or out of date
- Right to deletion: to ask us to delete your information, unless we must keep it by law
- Right to object or restrict: to ask us to stop or limit how we use your information
- Right to withdraw consent: to change your mind at any time where we rely on your consent, for example by unsubscribing from our newsletter
- Right to data portability: to ask for a copy of your information in a format you can pass to another organisation
To use any of these rights, please contact us using the details below. We may ask you to confirm your identity before we respond, and we aim to reply within one month.
12. Cookies
Our website uses a small number of cookies to make donations work, keep the website secure and remember simple preferences. We do not use advertising cookies. Full details are in our Cookie Policy.
13. Social media
We share news about our work on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube. When you follow, message or interact with us there, your information is also handled by that platform under its own privacy policy.
We do not upload our supporters' email addresses or phone numbers to social media platforms for advertising or targeting.
14. Children
Our website is not designed for children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children online. Information about children who are patients, students or beneficiaries is collected through our programs with the involvement of a parent or guardian and is protected as described above.
15. Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites, such as our payment provider or our social media pages. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites, so please read their privacy policies.
16. Changes to this policy
We review this policy regularly and may update it from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated. If we make important changes, we will show a clear notice on our website.
17. Questions and complaints
If you have any questions about this policy, want to use your rights, or are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please contact us. We take every concern seriously and will do our best to resolve it.
- Email: admin@sarwarfoundation.org
- Post: Sarwar Foundation, Office No. 1, Second Floor, Qube Center, Divine Gardens, New Airport Road, Lahore, Pakistan, 54000
- Online: through our Contact page
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