And the Quest to help continues….

"In helping others, we shall help ourselves,

for whatever good we give out completes the circle

and comes back to us."

Flora Edwards

Nearly a month after floods first began battering Pakistan, and as waters still sweep through the south of the country, the flood victims are still homeless and hardly can cope up with the necessities of life i-e food, clothing and shelter and their old pleasant lives seem to be dream for them.
We do see many Government authorities, different UN welfare organizations extending a helping hand towards the flood victims but what is more pride taking is the efforts and the love of humanity we see in the citizens of Pakistan.
A couple of days we see people going door-to-door and collecting funds, taking out rallies in order to motivate the citizens to help collect food and clothing items for the ones who have lost all their valuables in the flood, as well as mobilizing people across the world through internet, telephone calls, and launching a massive appeal on the streets. What we observe is that the most effective way people can assist relief efforts is by making cash contributions to charitable organizations that are conducting relief operations. Cash donations help in buying the exact items needed in the affected regions, reduce the burden of scarce items, and also support the people financially which can in turn ensure their dietary, environmental and cultural needs. We see the outstanding efforts of citizens who have earned a lot of amount mostly in Lakhs and have donated all to the flood victims under the label of different organizations such as PAF base, a flood relief camp that was held at Royal Rodale in Karachi, a relief camp conducted by Senator Nilofer Bakhtiar, etc. A friend of mine, who is part of a non-profit youth organization FLP (Future Leaders of Pakistan), recently came back from the flood affected areas and said that on visiting the relief camps, she witnessed the miseries of the victims as they were badly affected by the deadly floods. She saw that the poor people didn’t even have clean water to drink and people hadn’t even taken bath since days. She remarked that even along with her large number of members of the committee with her, they couldn’t cover even half of the families of that camp.
Then again, we see doctors, general physicians doing collective efforts for the flood victims and checking for different diseases, that have enveloped the people there; and treating them. The flood victims are endangered to have caught diseases such as malaria, cholera, typhoid and many other lethal diseases. But my friend emphasized a lot that the flood affected victims need more doctors and medicines because the state of people living there is very critical and they should get under immediate observation.
I also went on the flood relief drive through my University i-e Szabist, in which we went on a march for about six hours, for three consecutive days and earned almost Seven Lakhs. It was a good initiative by students of Szabist to march on their toes in Ramadan and collect funds for the flood victims. Inspiring was the generosity of the common man, we saw in these three days --from rickshaw drivers to security guards and to laborers, who without any hesitation gave money to us in order to the help the flood victims. Not only this, we see individuals on roads, carrying a box in their hands and asking for charity for the flood victims on roads .We even see people with the heart of Gold who don’t belong to any committee or organization, are sending Ramadan packages to flood affected population.
By the efforts we see and hear of Pakistanis, we feel that though Pakistan has become paralyzed by consecutive traumatic events that hit the country, but our country still stays Green because of the Ever Green people residing in its heart. The efforts of citizens give us all a lot of hope and confidence that together we as a nation can survive this terrible tragedy and come out stronger, because I feel that even a little effort brings about tangible results and also, people never forget that helping hand when the times are tough for them!

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”~ Maria Robinson.