Initiative launched to collect things for children’s happiness

LAHORE:Sometimes small things bring big smile - that can be seen and felt. Arundhati Roy rose to prominence with her novel “The God of Small Things” by unlocking the potential of seemingly small things in our lives that have huge bearings on our happiness.

Humans have an innate drive for good karma. We do it everyday in our own way, yet organising a programme that motivates people around to contribute is difficult. We face our own inertia, and unseen barriers. Pakistan is already known to be leading in P2P private charity. Still an estimated 55 million people are living under the poverty line.

That’s where Bank of Happiness, a family-owned welfare initiative, comes-in. Khadija Haq, 17, leads the initiative and her younger brother Razaul Haq, 15, does the leg work for her. The duo is all it takes to make a superb team that works through a motivated volunteers’ network. Bank of Happiness collects outgrown kids’ shoes, toys and clothes from homes and offices then gift packs those and are shared with other kids.

The most empowering aspect of BOH's initiative is the involvement of students from various schools and teaching them the benefits of sharing instead of stockpiling or throwing away. BOH visits campuses and not only works with students, but also brings them to the forefront in a variety of roles. The students then organise donation drives, spread the message and distribute the collections alongside BOH. Recently, Bank of Happiness organised a donation collection drive at a private school in E-11, Islamabad. Supported by students, it collected various items and disseminated their message regarding the importance of “sharing rather than stockpiling. The students responded with generosity and many volunteered to work after they heard Khadija talk. All this activity will brighten the lives of children that they would now help. BOH's unique engagement promotes leadership in the upcoming generation. It also teaches them social individual responsibility. Khadija Haq told this scribe that when her uncle envisioned Bank of Happiness, she volunteered to lead. This has had an immense impact on her life and people around her. She faced difficulties but she overcame them. The whole value set of volunteers undergoes a change, she said.

“They start to realise how wasteful we are’ and they also find ways to make use of the items rusting in our store rooms. Most of the programmes they run focus on children. Children are our future and poverty steals so many opportunities from them,” she said. Poverty hurts them by throwing away kids' dreams. BOH lets these young ones dream again by distributing toys, clothes, and shoes. These items are collected through private donations from homes, offices and schools which are then refurbished with the help of professionals, gift-packed and further distributed amongst the kids/students in the under-privileged areas. BOH encourages students to donate these seemingly ordinary items and then in turn gives the other children a way to enjoy the cute looking gift packs. It allows them to dream, to play and to hope, for a future where their children can one day play with their own toys and donate them as well! Another way in which BOH impacts the lives of many is by distributing medicines. It collects unused medicines that are likely to expire in people’s homes, sort and distribute them amongst others.

This is done through medical practitioners’ advice. It is a small low cost but highly effective initiative. Khadija smiled and said, “I realised that by giving we help ourselves more than anyone else.”