Awais Khalid, President of the Haque Academy Community Service Club, reflects on the group’s experience of volunteering its time to ‘creatively’ raise funds towards the provision of post-operative antibiotics for patients at Jinnah Hospital.
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there” –Theodore Roosevelt. With this belief came the formation of the Haque Academy Community Service club; a small group of passionate students who wanted to help and make this community a better place for everyone.
On 26th February, Ms. Saman from Volunteer Karachi conducted a workshop for the Haque Academy Community Service club at Haque Academy. All the club members came together and listened intently to what Volunteer Karachi had to offer. She told us about Volunteer Karachi first, and then we discussed fundraising goals and brain stormed new creative ideas for fundraising. In the next few days we decided which fundraising goal we wanted to take up and started working towards achieving it.
We knew that raising money would not be easy but we were ready to take on the challenge. The first fundraising activity we organized was a Creative Story Writing Competition. We placed two flip charts in the middle of our school ground during break and wrote down the first sentence of a story. Every student could contribute to the story by adding one sentence to the story. For each sentence they were requested to make a small payment of a specified amount. We ended up with two absolutely hilarious stories and everyone enjoyed the activity.
The second fundraising activity we had was on a bigger scale than the first one. An in-school movie was organized after school for the students. Tickets for the movie were sold and the event was open for all Haque Academy students. Two movies, “Mama” and “The King’s Speech” were shown at the same time in two different rooms and a lot of excited and ecstatic students showed up. Popcorn was also sold at the event and all the students enjoyed themselves and felt their contribution to the cause had been worth their while and money!
On the same day, we also started selling Haque Academy customized t-shirts. The t-shirt had Haque Academy’s mascot printed on the back with a slogan and was available in ten different colors.
It was an exhilarating experience and taught us many lessons. Every member of our club realized the important and essential role we play in society. We learned how to make commitments, and more importantly how to fulfill these commitments. And, lastly we realized the importance of perseverance and hard work (and at the end of it, all of us had also learned a lot of Economics ;p).
I, Awais Khalid, President of the Haque Academy Community Service Club, am grateful for the opportunity given to me by Volunteer Karachi and I hope to continue my work with them in the future.
* * * * *
Anum Piracha, (at the time a Class 8 student at Haque Academy), reflects on her volunteer experience of teaching children at the SOS Village about ‘Environmental Hazards’ with her peers. Read on…
Every moment is an experience, and learning something becomes part of your experience. When our language teacher, Mrs. Ambreen shared with us the SOS project in which we would be going as volunteers to present on sub topics coming under the main topic: “environmental hazards”, we were excited and at the same time inquisitive and eager to know about our respective groups and the topics we would be presenting on.
Our class was divided into four groups each group with five members. Our group was assigned the topic “water contamination”. We had planned to perform a small skit which would show the behavior of common people who would throw trash while casually strolling across a beach; and its consequences faced by the poor children who drink that water. We planned several activities as the children over there were in junior grades and we thought that activities would help convey our message to them. Working in a group requires a lot of coordination and one has to compromise a lot. We faced few difficulties as well since each person in the group had a separate attitude towards the work. But at the end of the day, it all went great.
Then came the day of our presentation. While entering the SOS village, we were all very nervous as the place was new to us and uncertainty clouded our minds. But the warm welcome of the SOS children struck a smile on our anxious faces. Once we arrived, like all the others we were given a table, where we had our charts and experiments laid out for the presentation. Fingers crossed, we started our presentation. Everything was going according to plan but then along came a problem. One of our group members had forgotten to bring the filter paper which was the main part in our experiment showing filtration of contaminated water. We had to cancel the experiment and replace it with a short activity. Turn by turn, groups of children came on the table and we presented our topic to them. We observed that though they were just kids eight to ten year olds but their creativity, their response was worth praising. Their frankness with each other and their unity was a lesson for us.
Though, sometimes such experiences are often thought of as a field trip for students, it was a great learning opportunity for me. The most important thing that I learned was that individual commitment to a group effort is what makes it worthwhile. Given the opportunity, I would like to volunteer again in the SOS village as a teacher and perhaps also give my time to various other NGO’S and trusts.
(The above Volunteer Story was edited by Aeman Muneeb – an enthusiastic volunteer writer for VK =)
* * * * *
The Story Of Volunteer Karachi
I am a freelance graphic designer by profession. While volunteering my services in South East Asia, in 2005, I came across the idea of flexible volunteering. I was instantly convinced that the idea was perfect for Pakistan! I shared my vision for introducing accessible yet meaningful volunteering in Pakistan with Nida – an educator, who was equally inspired. Once I was back in Karachi, the two of us started working together to establish a platform to connect volunteers with organizations in need through flexible opportunities. Despite several challenges, we have worked steadily with an unshakeable faith in the need for and power of such a project. Volunteer Karachi is the outcome of two years of sustained efforts.
volunteerkarachi 
An amazing step taken to bring a change…Really looking forward to this, inshAllah. May Allah grant you with the highest level of Jannah for this noble cause 🙂
Anam. Thank you so much for your support. It means alot. We hope Volunteer Karachi will help you engage with communities in need across Karachi in a meaningful, productive manner. Happy Volunteering!