WE DON’T BELIEVE IN FAILURES
Abdul Sattar Edhi has been a Pakistani philanthropist, ascetic, and humanitarian who started the Edhi Foundation to help the poor. This organization became the world’s largest volunteer ambulance network and various homeless shelters, animal shelters, rehabilitation centers, and orphanages across Pakistan. After Sir Edhi’s demise, we all know that the Edhi foundation funds are decreasing day by day. As we all know, Edhi Sb. started this organization in 1951, and due to his extremely noble cause, this process is still going on. As Amal Academy has this activity planned for us, we fellow members of this fellowship got this opportunity to collect Edhi Foundation funds, which could help needy and poor people. In this blog, we will be sharing our reflections on this journey.
It is quite the first experience for all of us to volunteer for a social cause, and it has been a great pleasure for us to work for this social cause. Especially for the Edhi Foundation, we all are well aware of their services and their devotion to helping the needy. As we know, how many difficulties Edhi foundation is facing right now to help those in dire need of support, financially and for other reasons.
USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO SPREAD THE WORDS:
With this era of technology, we can reach out to several people through online platforms. We moved with the same approach and tried our best to convey our message to many people. We put statuses on our Whatsapp, share messages in groups, made attractive posters, put them on our stories, and posted them on Facebook. Due to the pandemic, it was also difficult to reach out to public places for fund collection. Therefore, we think the online platform is the best approach.
We also designed posters for this cause to make a noticeable impact on our observers that this isn’t some fraud. Through our posters, we try to evoke our society’s emotion that this charity and donation can bring many smiles to the faces of those who require it. Even their little contribution can add a lot of difference in their lives.
But there are some cons while using these platforms, such as people move on by looking at the post, and we couldn’t convince them until they respond to us. And as a group, we felt that this would not be enough. So, we decided to reach out to eateries and ask for donations and experience this donation collection personally rather than through social media.
CHALLENGES:
Not only as a team but on an individual level, we had seen a lot of challenges, like when we uploaded our Whatsapp status and asked for donations from different Whatsapp groups. The only thing that we have received was rejection. Apart from that, some negative remarks are too because of the disbelief that we are the authentic source. The majority number of people have seen and ignored our messages. Only 1 out of 10 people responded.
Reaching out to friends/family/circle/acquaintance.
The main challenge was to convince people and build their trust that their donations are going directly to the EDHI FOUNDATION. But we did try to cope with this problem as a group. We tried reaching out to several people in person, particularly talking with them, sharing the whole scenario, and realizing the Edhi foundation's current situation as we are an authentic source. If still, they are having some issues, they can directly submit their donation to Edhi Foundation, keeping us informed about it and sharing the receipt details.
Reaching out to strangers.
That wasn’t an easy task too, but we managed to perform this task with the 1 or 1 Gyara Principle. We 4 group members reach out to the eateries directly without having any authentic source and let them know about our activity. The difficult task was to tell and convince the business owners/Managers by trusting our association with the Edhi Foundation for collecting funds. We also showed them the given AUTHORITY LETTER to us. But if someone doubts us, we gave them the same option of directly donating on Edhi foundation’s official website and providing us with a receipt of donations for the record-keeping purpose. We targeted Dunkin doughnuts, Krispy 2 Go, Pizza crust, Bin Safeer SuperMarket, OPTP, Bata, and Outfitters.
DONATIONS RECEIVED AS:
We decided to use the EASYPAISA and Jazz Cash accounts of our members to collect funds. Due to the protest and COVID-19 current situation, we cannot reach out to people for money collection. So, we opt for the latest and easiest payment method. We got some online money transactions. Secondly, when we collected the donations by reaching out to people, also we received some cash.
Not only cash, but we also received some clothes for donation through our member's reference. So we have planned on donating all the amount and clothes collectively to the nearest Edhi Foundation branch.
REFLECTION ON THIS JOURNEY:
Collection of funds for a social cause is never easy. We have gone through many resistances and hurdles to climb just one stair so that we can come 1 step closer to our final goal. Our circle practiced teamwork, communication skills, and hard work via this project. As I reflect upon this journey of 2 weeks, I still remember how we started it. We started by making a poster and putting it on our stories. We tried to go the extra mile by convincing our friends and family to donate to this cause. The next milestone was to contact the organizations, but that was not possible because of a lack of resources or contacts. So our group took this initiative and went to the restaurants and eateries and asked them for donations. There were many rejections that we faced. Out of 5 every 3–4 rejected us. But still, we never forget our why and stuck to it firmly. Every time someone rejected us, we got a bit demotivated. Still, then we remembered why in the first place we started it instantly we could feel a boost of energy. We were ready to try again. Because if we had never asked people, no one would have considered it. It was all about the power of asking. The fear of asking is very powerful. But you have to remember what is the worst that could happen. Rejection? Right! But at least you tried. Despite every obstacle, you never gave up and still tried your best, so we are a proud team as our hard work has finally worked out.
We want to thank Amal Academy for giving us this opportunity to work for this noble cause and even generate much money from the collection. As a team, we try to spread awareness about the difficult time that the Edhi Foundation is facing after Edhi Sb’s demise. Hope this can create a little impact on our society.
