Funds for Edhi Foundation
Raising money in the time of Covid for a charity that is all-weather friend of humanity
Edhi Foundation — the dearest child of Abdul Sattar Edhi — is less of a charity organization and more of a home for the disadvantaged people in Pakistan. Edhi Sahab cemented the values of compassion, hope and love within the very foundations of the organization, with the intention of serving the community without expectation. He demanded for himself neither a luxurious lifestyle, nor fame, popularity and prestige in return. But he was always looking for help, in the form of donations, awareness and responsibility. Clothed in his simple, over-worn shalwar kameez, he would stand at busy roads, junctions and traffic signals asking for money for his charity organization. Edhi Saab was very dedicated to the values that he had been believing in since his childhood, and even though he is unfortunately no more with us, his message of humanity will echo through eons of time.
I am highly grateful to Amal Academy for their emphasis on Edhi Foundation not just in activities but in the courses too. It is very important to remember what the organization stands for, and at this point, it should value to everyone. In a three-week activity, my circle members and I were able to raise funds for Edhi Foundation in response to the decrease in the Edhi funds as reported by Faisal Edhi, the visionary’s son.
We decided to establish bank account, jazzcash and easypaisa facility to make the transfer of money convenient to the people we reach out. Due to the pandemic situation, it was difficult to reach out to people physically and hence, we decided to take on our activities using social media platforms. We worked individually, but we kept reporting to each other as a group. Using the official letter issued by the Program Manager, Ms. Zeest Amal, we were able to authenticate our activities in case people needed to be convinced. We reached out to our family, relatives and friends. Their response was encouraging and one can always emotionally blackmail friends into contributing to a cause you care about.
The hardest part was reaching out to strangers, but I had the interesting experience of an Amal alumni reaching out to me for donation. He gave me some tips to get more donations and I incorporated those as well. We were able to reach out to 500 people out of which 350 were strangers, and only 15 people responded. In order words, we had to deal with a lot of rejection, but we continued to keep going even though the chances were low. We had to grow a thicker skin, and swallow the fact that some people do not care. We even had to hear harsh words, but we realized our duty to Edhi Sahab was more important than the displeasure we felt at the responses.
It was a very challenging activity as you had to first reach out to people and then had to prove them that you weren’t a fraud. But gladly, we were able to stay motivated and driven towards our goal, just like Edhi Sahab was when he didn’t even have enough to start with.
We were able to raise 14,460 PKR at the end of this activity, which was transferred to the Edhi account. This activity made us realize the extent of labor and effort that Edhi Sahab must have went through, and all the rejections he must have faced. He had limited sources to connect with people, while we merely had to exchange few messages over our phones. We are privileged even in our efforts, and yet our humility may never be as optimized as Edhi Sahab’s. Certainly, Edhi centre is a miracle because of purity of intentions and optimism for goodness in the world.
