The richest poor man
Edhi Foundation-Fund Raising
Abdul Sattar Edhi, a name that needs no introduction. His selfless work speaks for himself. He was not an ordinary man rather he was a father to many orphans, a shelter for many homeless, and a ray of hope for many hopeless. People like him are born after a long time. His altruistic nature makes him standout from rest of the people working in the sector. If it wasn’t him, then we might never come across the world’s largest volunteer ambulance network operating in the country. He worked against the tide and went out of the way to help people. I mean words can’t justify to praise the work he has done for many destitute. He strongly believed that,
“No religion is higher than humanity.”
Since his demise, the donations that his organization used to receive are relatively dropped to a low level, says his son Faisal Edhi. Due to inadequate funds the Edhi foundation is severely suffering. For this purpose our circle is making efforts in generating funds for Edhi Foundation. Let’s join hands and take forward the mission of Edhi sahab. Step forward and donate.
We are working in a circle to support the mission of Edhi sahab in the following ways.
Our group follow Iqra narrates her experience in the following words,
“My experience of collecting funds was quite different than I thought. It seemed to be an easy task, however when I reached different people and asked for funds, I also had to answer a lot of their questions and insecurities like why are you collecting funds for this? Why should we give it through you and not directly to Edhi foundation? Who are you working for? Who else has given you funds? I had to convince people about my honesty and that I’m not a spam but collecting funds for real. I was able to collect 300 Rs donations so far and that too, from my friends and family only.
Our group members collected funds individually, but the strategy was same.
Most of the people asked us about the authentication of our project we’re working on, to make sure that we’re not doing any sort of fraud. So, we convinced them by briefing about Amal Academy and our project for funds collection. We also asked for a reference letter from our facilitators which can be used as a proof.
As I worked on collecting funds, I realized that it is never an easy task to convince people even for a social welfare cause. I clearly got an experience on how Edhi Sahb struggled all this life to set up this organization, facing difficulties and failures throughout. But during this activity I learned that failure is a part of life and it makes us understand the problems more clearly. After multiples rejections, I was still able to collect some funds at least which means that even a small amount can make a great difference when you’re accepting your failures and learning from it.”
Similarly Bushra shares her experience as follows,
“It was a bit disappointing for me even though the cause itself is strong and
important but due to Covid situation I was unable to move out of my home and through social media it was difficult to convince people to donate. People either tend to ignore or say they will contribute but they actually did not. I was collecting individually because of Covid-19, it was different and difficult because i did not have any support bank with me. Also collecting donations from home is a new thing for me and that’s why I faced rejections a lot.
One challenge was people did not take my messages seriously and ignored my questionnaire. Also, they asked questions related to the project and why I am collecting these donations. Also, how authentic will be to provide me with their donations. For which I told them about Amal Academy and its project and also explained to them the cause behind this project; to help Edhi Foundation during this pandemic and urban flooding. As people were not convinced by questionnaire i used social media campaign with the slogan of ‘’ stand for others’’
This experience taught me whenever you fall down; get you and fight back, accept your rejection. Failure taught me where I went wrong also helps me not to make the same mistake again. An example for this will be i texted my whole class to donate but no one donated rather than getting upset. I worked on it and started to connect with people individually which helped me to collect donations.I made a questionnaire for fund raising. The link is attached below. In addition, I designed posters for the social media campaign and shared the posters with my group fellows too.”
https://forms.gle/bRRphcrx99n9ekC58.
Moving on, our another team member Awais explains his efforts below.
“As right now there are a lot of people around us who need monetarily help. So people in my circle mostly donate directly to them instead of giving charity to any organisation. So in such way I faced trouble in collecting funds.
I collected fund individually due to partially locked and I am completely cut off from my mates.
Well, it was quite challenging for me to get funds on calls instead of personally face to face conversations. There were a lot of challenges I faced but the one I want to discuss was “Now after graduation instead of doing qualification relevant business or job you started getting funds? You are wasting your golden time”. So, I overcome this challenge by taking my circle people into my trust. They started taking my side and then helped me in getting funds.
Well, this experience rewind many of mine thoughts about people. Secondly its force me to think that we can change our society’s prospective but before that we should need to take under trust our most closed circle people. And in this way our journey can become much easier.”
Nimra shares her journey of collecting funds in the following words,
“It is first time in my life that I am doing such an activity. My experience is extremely wonderful and people have cooperated more than my expectations. I have collected funds individually from my class fellows and relatives and from all the people those who are in my contact. Due to Covid-19 it was different and little bit difficult.
The challenge was convincing people and people have also asked about my affiliation with Edhi foundation. I didn’t have Jazz cash and Easypaisa account before so I made it too because of this activity. It made me know that our expectations can never be fulfilled up to hundred percent and we have to go along with it.”
Lastly, Mahnoor (I) summarize my experience in the following paragraphs.
“For me collecting funds wasn’t something new but due to the recent pandemic the circumstances are completely shifted 180 degrees. Asking for donations face to face is a relatively simpler and more effective manner. I’ve shared the posters that Bushra designed, updated a status, did calls and dropped messages to collect donations. Actually online communication has delays and it gives an easy escape for people who want to avoid this situation. I won’t say that people don’t feel for the poor but in reality only a handful of people come forward to donate. I am neither losing heart nor feeling rejected. It’s just that due to this new order I have to double the efforts. I am hopeful to persuade more people. Helping for a social cause always carries an extra pack of energy along as it results in inner peace.
As it’s pandemic and everyone is staying indoors so I individually made efforts to collect the donations. We believe in ‘ek aur ek gyarah’ but unfortunately we can’t meet in these circumstances. I hope the situation gets better soon so we can go out in public and collect donations. As far as challenges are concerned people had plenty of questions. As no one wants to give their money where they are not sure of who is going to get them or if they are uncertain that whether this money will reach the desired audience or not. Secondly, I didn’t get a positive response from people despite sending them reminders. Like people who are friends of my friends or not belonging to my circle wanted to see an official letter to believe in the cause.
To overcome these issues, I have personally convinced my friends to give guarantee to their friends on my behalf that this is not a scam. Secondly, I along with my group members have asked for a letter from Amal team to show as a proof that we are working for the right cause. Indeed it’s quite a challenge to accept failure. Not everyone you think can donate, donates. People are really nice to you in front of you, but they don’t show that love when you ask for help. It’s not easy to go to people and ask for monetary help even if that’s in the form of donations. I am stating here what Edhi sahab had to say about such people,
“People have become educated, but have not yet become human.”
Despite all the challenges, me and my team members are still determined to try our best and contribute as much as we can in this noble cause. We hope for better results by each passing day. I’ll conclude with another beautiful and holistic message by this great leader.
“So, many years later there were many who still complained and questioned, ‘Why must you pick up Christians and Hindus in your ambulance?’ And I was saying, ‘Because the ambulance is more Muslim than you.”
― Abdul Sattar Edhi
