The Pakistan Haj Volunteers Group (PHVG) held a training session and workshop for its volunteers at the Pakistan International School in Azizia at the weekend.

The group organized the training workshop for the volunteers to gain an understanding of this year’s Haj plan and their duties.

The PHVG is a nonprofit group of volunteers from all fields of life and backgrounds who want to serve the guests of God of all nationalities.

The group’s management team includes Mohammed Nawaz, Hafiz Amjad, Noman Taj, Wasim Bukhari and Mohammed Ismail.

Amjad said that the basic duties of the volunteers in the past was to guide lost pilgrims to their accommodation in Mina. However, this year they will perform their duties near the Grand Mosque and Azizia district in Makkah where a large number of pilgrims are expected to stay. The volunteers will work for 12 hours in a two-shift system.

“Volunteers are equipped with maps, instructions and wheelchairs to help elderly pilgrims,” said Amjad.

Explaining the training of volunteers, he said they are given information in two sessions which detail the organization’s mission and vision, its field work and communication with the control room.

“The need for volunteers is acute on the first day of Haj,” said Mohammed Ismail. “So more than 800 volunteers will be dispatched on Day 1.”

He said they had initially hoped to enroll 3,000 volunteers but owing to accommodation issues, they were only able to take in 1,200 volunteers.

Mohammed Nawaz, the group’s senior founder member, said the organization was established in 2011. “However, the group got official recognition by the Saudi and Pakistani governments last year. This recognition allowed us to work in cooperation with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Pakistani Haj Mission and other charitable organizations.”