How Ovais Iqbal won laurels for his services for Deaf Reach programme in Pakistan

In 2017, Ovais Iqbal, who is an employee of Cisco Systems, Inc. which is an American multinational technology conglomerate, went for a breakfast to the Rotary Club in Canada where he met Denial, who is French Canadian. Denial moved to Pakistan around 29 years back and is currently the director operations of Deaf Reach School, which is an initiative of the Family Educational Services Foundation (FESF), a non-profit educational organisation active in Pakistan since 1984. The FESF is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for all members of the community, especially those who are disadvantaged.

After meeting Denial, Iqbal propagated the work of the FESF in the Pakistani and other communities in Canada. He then contacted a charity organisation, Human Concern International (HCI), and collected more than $0.2 million for the FESF through different fund-raising programmes. “Donors were Pakistanis, non-Pakistanis, Muslims and non-Muslims, as that is a multicultural society,” he told The News on Wednesday. He then visited Pakistan and went to all the campuses of the Deaf Reach School.

In April, Iqbal was designated as goodwill ambassador for North America of the FESF. The story doesn’t end here. Due to his charitable services, Iqbal has been awarded CISCO Community Hero Award 2019-2020. “The SISCO has more than 80,000 employees in 92 countries. They encourage their employees to serve their home communities,” he said. “The company gives five paid working days yearly to the employees for serving their native communities.”

The company nominates 10 of its employees for the award worldwide. In October 2019, voting was held in the company for the 10 nominees. “In December 2019, the 10 nominees were called in London and no one knew who the winner was,” he said and recalled how the CEO of CISCO, Chuck Robins, played the video of his charitable work at the award-giving ceremony. “I feel proud of the fact that now among 80,000 people and out of 92 countries, Pakistan’s and Deaf Reach School’s name became prominent,” he said.

A ceremony was held in this regard at the Deaf Reach School’s campus in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Block 12, on Wednesday, to celebrate Iqbal’s win of ‘CISCO Community Hero Award 2019-20’ for his services rendered for Deaf Reach programme in Pakistan.

FESF Founder and Director Richard Geary shared how Iqbal’s dedication to the cause and the journey that he made to travel to the campuses in Sindh and Punjab had been beneficial to them. At the ceremony, the student of the school initiated the event with a rendition of Pakistan’s national anthem in sign language.

FESF member of board Mazhar Valjee gave the vote of thanks at the ceremony. There’s a corporate social security department in CISCO. “In Canada, the workers of this department, saw my work on my social media accounts, and without taking me into confidence, they nominated me,” he recalled and shared that there were around 300 nomination papers submitted, and after 15 days he got to know that he was among the top 10 nominees.

Iqbal shared with The News that CISCO supported the cause of the global hero which it nominated every year. “We don’t know the exact amount right now,” he said and added that the FESF was now in CISCO’s system. “Now we have an edge. Whatever amount I will collect for donation, CISCO will donate as much amount to the cause,” he explained. Internationally, he pointed out that the Deaf Reach programme had gained its visibility due to the award.