ACF Animal Rescue - Pakistan
Founder’s Note:
I never set out to build an “organization.” I didn’t have a roadmap, a strategy deck, or funding. There was no blueprint. I just knew I couldn’t keep looking away from suffering and stay silent.
Since I was a child, I remember staring out of the car window on the way to school, watching donkeys being beaten on the roads, dogs limping through traffic, cats curled up on the sidewalks, injured and invisible. I couldn’t understand why no one stopped. Why no one even seemed to notice. That deep discomfort never left me.
At 10, I was spending my summers volunteering at orphanages. At 17, I was helping care for 700 refugees every day after school following the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. I never believed in charity as a one-time act. To me, real change means consistency — showing up even when you’re exhausted, even when it’s easier to stay home.
I’ve always had a restless energy — a refusal to sit still. I’ve done 17 internships across media, film, publishing, and advocacy. I studied English Literature and Philosophy in the UK, completed a Master’s in International Broadcast Journalism, and later trained in Humanistic Psychotherapy and Counseling. Not because I had a specific career goal — but because I was curious. Because I wanted to understand how people worked, how pain shaped them, and how stories could carry both truth and healing.
I’ve made films about coffins. I’ve made documentaries about women’s prisons in Pakistan, about the link between child sexual abuse and heroin addiction on the streets of Peshawar. I’ve always chased the stories most people shy away from.
1st ACF shelter
When I officially started ACF at 25, it wasn’t a sudden moment. It was the culmination of years of witnessing injustice and feeling a constant, quiet ache to respond. I wanted to create something that made the unseen seen — especially animals, who were completely forgotten in our landscape.
In the beginning, I was everything: the rescuer, the food prep and feeder, the HR and legal and operations person, the stock manager, the call handler, the content creator, the fundraiser — all while working five other jobs just to keep going. There was no money, no structure, no precedent. Just a need. Just a refusal to do nothing.
ACF is now a 24-department organization. But I didn’t build it alone. What started as something personal has become the embodiment of so many people’s compassion — the incredible team that stands beside me, the donors and supporters who have shown up over and over again, in their own ways, in their own capacities.
1st ACF shelter
The donkey medical camps were one of the first things I started — because it made no sense to me that an entire city could depend on working animals and have nowhere to treat them. Like having a city full of cars and no mechanics. That one idea grew into something far bigger — not just because of me, but because of everyone who believed in the vision and helped bring it to life.
Today, we have one shelter. And we are now building Pakistan’s first-ever animal sanctuary — a space shaped by 12 years of heartbreak, grit, and learning. Along the way, we’ve created the country’s first active animal rescue team, rehab facilities, donkey medical camps, and education programs that challenge how people see animals — and themselves.
As we approach our 12-year anniversary this July, I look back with gratitude. Gratitude to the animals who have been our greatest teachers. To my team who never give up. And to you — for caring, for reading this, and for being part of the journey.
Thank you for helping make the unseen visible.
With love,
Ayesha