close
US

Kindness is priceless

By SG
Fri, 06, 18

Every gift of your time, money and talent is an act of kindness that moves another person to pay it forward. ....

PHILANTHROPY

Every gift of your time, money and talent is an act of kindness that moves another person to pay it forward. When more people join hands, you begin to change the world.

Can you raise funds for your university charity? Or visit orphans? Or spend time feeding stray cats? Or check out if someone in the family needs help?

All you have to do is stand up and get involved! Ramadan and Eid are best times of the year to remind yourself to be considerate. See what you can do and how you can help people in need.

There are so many charitable organizations working in Pakistan currently that it can be a bit daunting to decide which one is right for you.

Us got in touch with the founding members of three small-scale charitable organizations to find out what they are doing to help people and how others can join them in their mission.

Feed the world

Since 2013, Feed the World has been running food distribution drives in various localities in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The founders of the organization not just want to eradicate hunger, but also feed people in a way that is dignified and orderly.

Syed Hasan Bokhari, the founder of Feed the World, tells Us more about the organization, “Currently, we are focusing on Ramazan food drives. We see people participating enthusiastically during this holy month! We have three points in the twin cities where people can come in to volunteer. One is at Lalkurti from where people pick up meals, which is usually a packet of chickpea rice and a water bottle and distribute them. Other point is at Poly Clinic Hospital in G6, and from there we go to other public hospitals. Then we have F-11 Markaz, where we meet the rest of the team members, coordinate with each other and carry on with the distribution of meals.

“In Ramazan, we do this regularly and the rest of the year we do it on a monthly basis because we don’t have enough volunteers.

“Volunteers are always welcomed here! They just have to bring their own vehicle to pick up meals and then distribute them in areas where people are in need.

“When it comes to donations, we highly recommend people to first come over to any of our points and see what we are doing. This way it gets easier for them to decide if they should donate here.”

Community Social Service

Led by Usman Khan and Hasan Naseem, Community Social Service (CSS) focuses on educating underprivileged children in Islamabad.

“For the last three years, we have been trying to provide education and basic health care facilities in areas where there are no government schools and children are engaged in child labour,” Usman Khan, the co-founder of CSS, says.

“Even the parents aren’t really concerned about educating their children. Every sector in Islamabad has at least four government schools. Sector E-11 is, however, an exception; there is not a single government school in this area. We decided to have our school in the densely populated part of sector E-11.

Today, we have around 170 students in our school.

“We depend on donations for running the school which usually come from our circle of family and friends. People also contact us through social media and donate.

“Other than money, we really want people to help us on field and volunteer. They can visit our schools and see what they can easily do for us. University students keep coming to help us.

“Since students are on a summer break in Ramazan, what we do is set up free medical camps and arrange iftar for everyone.

Eid in a box

“I had always wanted to do something on the occasion of Eid. I would visit old age homes, and make goody bags for street children. Last year, I came up with the idea of making gift boxes for poor families. The idea was to fill bags with Eid related stuff such as clothes, bangles, sweets and chocolates, etc. Last year, we made 300 boxes and this year our target is to make more than 1000 boxes.

“When we started our biggest concern was finding the right place to send these gift boxes. Then I learned about Idara Al-Khair which is an NGO working for the development of Jam Chakro, a 500-acre of landfill, an hour and a half drive away from Karachi. It is a mismanaged dumping ground for solid waste and, unfortunately, home to 2000 families who have nowhere to go. There are two schools being run in that area by this organization and we send our Eid boxes to children in those schools.

“If anyone wishes to volunteer they can email or leave us a message on social media and we will tell them in what capacity they can help us. At this stage, it will mostly be packing and assembling the boxes. However, we would need more volunteers next year who could help us reach a wider audience. People interested in donating contact us on social media and then we guide them accordingly.

- S.G