pakistan
One Wish Football Academy
Founded in 2019 in Islamabad, Pakistan, One Wish Football Academy provides free football access to underprivileged and homeless youth through the One Wish Football Program, in partnership with Karim Khan Afridi Welfare Foundation.
Pakistan faces significant socioeconomic challenges that affect vulnerable youth and contribute to homelessness and exclusion. Poverty remains widespread, placing young people at heightened risk of social exclusion.
These conditions highlight the importance of initiatives like the One Wish Football Program, which uses football to promote inclusion, dignity, and pathways toward stability for underprivileged and homeless youth.
Country statistics
134 out of 193 in Human Development Index rankings (UNDP, 2025)
Average annual salary per person $2,540 (World Bank, 2025)
41% of the population live under the poverty line. (WFP, 2021)
With a population of more than 1.4 billion, India’s population is second only to China’s. Poverty underpins most of the challenges the world’s second-most populated country faces, with more than 1.7 million people estimated to be homeless (World Population Review, 2025) and almost 50% of the country’s population living in urban slums (World Bank, 2025).
The country is ranked 134th out of 193 on the Human Development Index (UNDP, 2025) and unemployment rates sit around 10% (Habitat for Humanity, 2025). The same percentage of people live on less than US$2 a day (WFP, 2025). Significant portions of the country’s population seek employment overseas in an effort to break the cycle of poverty.
The literacy rate is 77%, below the global average of 86.3% (UNDP, 2025). Access to clean water and sanitation, compounded by population density, as well as food insecurity and malnutrition are pressing health issues throughout the country (WFP, 2025).
STORIES from the region
