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Thursday March 28, 2024

Fundraiser for SOS Children’s Village held

IslamabadVolunteers play a big role in the success of an organisation especially certain charitable ones and the SOS Villages of Pakistan are no exception. One of the latest events organised by the volunteer committee of the SOS Village in Islamabad, which was inaugurated in 2011, was a fund-raising fashion show

By Ishrat Hyatt
March 14, 2015
Islamabad
Volunteers play a big role in the success of an organisation especially certain charitable ones and the SOS Villages of Pakistan are no exception. One of the latest events organised by the volunteer committee of the SOS Village in Islamabad, which was inaugurated in 2011, was a fund-raising fashion show in collaboration with the Serena Hotel. The event showcased Pakistan’s well known designer Sonya Batlas latest collection, titled ‘Manora,’ featuring the work of artist Naiza Khan.
Attendees were treated to high tea while waiting for everyone to arrive and the show began with chairperson of the SOS Village (Islamabad), Naznin Murtaza, welcoming the guests and saying a few words about the SOS villages, which are a haven for orphan and displaced children and are known for the quality of life, education and lifelong nurturing they provide for those in their care.
“Children are segregated at 14 years of age - boys are moved to a youth home where they continue their education, technical or otherwise and go on to become useful members of the community, while girls stay on till they are married or have opted for a career,” she said. “These young men and women may leave and have families of their own but SOS remains their home and they are always welcome. You will be pleased to know that all expenses are paid for by funds generated locally. It is for bigger projects that we look for donations from our many friends.”
She concluded by thanking the hardworking committee members, Waqar Boolani; Fareeha Hasan; Nubia Mujib; Saadia Mohsin; Shireen Saifullah and Nargis Sethi; the Serena for hosting the show; Tariq and Faiza Amin for crafting the event; Fahad Ali Panni for sound, stage and music and last but not least all who came to lend their support by attending the show. She then invited the ambassador of Austria, traditionally the patron of the SOS villages, to say a few words.
Ambassador Brigitta Blaha thanked the guests for supporting the cause and the volunteers for their dedication, then went on to give a brief history of the SOS Villages. The first Children’s Village was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in Tyrol, Austria, in 1949. As a child welfare worker, he saw how children orphaned as a result of World War II suffered.
He was committed to helping them by building loving families and supportive communities. With the generous support of donors, child sponsors, partners and friends, his vision of providing loving, family-based care for children without parental care, and of helping families stay together so they can care for their children, has grown steadily over six decades. Today, SOS Children’s Villages International is active in 134 countries around the world, helping hundreds of thousands of children each year through family-based alternative care, schools, health centres, family strengthening programmes and other community-based work.
The show was divided into two parts and mainly showed outfits that were meant for the young and hip women of society or those who wear western dress as a norm. “I like the second half better than the first,” said Susan Heyward from Australia. “There were a couple of outfits I felt I could wear.” Others liked the cut of the silk capes and some of the long dresses had the wow factor but basically, as someone remarked, what is shown on the ramp is not really wearable by everyone.
Designers keep all kinds of clients in mind and there was a choice to acquire an outfit more suited to the average Pakistani woman’s taste later on. The most touching part of the programme was when children from the SOS Village came on stage with placards reading, ‘Thank you for caring,’ for which they received a well deserved round of applause.
The next big project the volunteers have in mind is to build its own school for the SOS village, for which the support of generous persons is needed. This school will serve the educational needs of the SOS children as well as those of others living in the area. At present they are studying in a community centre under the aegis of the management of a private school system.