Edhi Donation Collection Venture (30/8/2021–11/9/2021)
By: Areej Anwar
Tags: Edhi Foundation, Amal Academy, Volunteering, Teamwork, Amal Fellowship

So that’s the whole thing we did so far. It wasn’t easy for me to do it alone but with our combined effort we were able to convince a number of people to donate to make up total of Rs.32613. We learned a lot, had fun a lot and we’re proud of ourselves that we made efforts for the such a great and selfless organization that only works for humanity.

We did get depressed about the people’s attitude at times like when they consider us some sort of scammers or beggars etc. but we didn’t let it got in our way. We kept ourselves motivated by thinking that's what Edhi Sahib did himself. He had been collecting donation for Edhi foundation alone for a long time. If he can do it, so why can’t we.

REFLEACTION SHORT STORIES FROM ALL GROUP MEMBERS:

1.Nouman Akram

Experience of fund collection activity was not bad although I learned many new points from this activity.

We as a group tried to convince people and convinced mostly.

The main challenge I personally faced was that some people were considering us as bangers and I felt that😑,but We didn’t lose our hope and tried to convince them by showing signed permission letter from Sir Faisal Edhi sb and response after that was good.

Even all people not given us donation but from this failure we didn’t got demotivated but learned to try try again.

And we haven’t taken any pictures because most of the people didn’t allowed us to show their kindness.

2.Zarish Karim

When I am starting to work as a volunteer with my fellows we visit different areas first of all visit the University of Agriculture tell the students we are from Amal Fellowship collect donation for Edhi foundation work as volunteer if anyone willing plz donate us because your cooperation can help needy people most of the people neglect us I feel too much bad some of the students responses are not good but we try our best because we work as an humanity also visit GCWUF students are not more but we started to collect her and during this also many students response are not well we also have no money for eating how to donate you, some of her we submitted a fee of admission so that’s why not donate you and some of them not trust because she think we collect for herself then after visited university go in different shops and restaurants local shops somehow donate us but rest of the restaurants not donate us he response and excuse the restaurant manager are not available and he already donate Edhi foundation.

The conclusion of all these activities most of the people are not willing to donate us maybe we collect for ourselves and some of them have no emotions regarding the needy people, why people neglect us start of this activity feeling bad like Alms but after few seconds no it’s our responsibility to help the needy people and collect a donation. The overall experience is great because it’s my first experience to work as a volunteer and also, we collect donations as a humanity. I feel so calm.

3.Hala Saleemi

Overall, my experience has been great. Working for Humanity and raising funds to help those in need gave me great peace of mind and heart. I also had to face the strange views and attitudes of the people. I was very disappointed in the beginning. Some of the responses were so bad that they weren’t even willing to donate and wanted to embarrass me that I was doing something too small. I felt embarrassed for a while, but then I decided no, it’s a good thing, and I have to do it. I did not give up and contacted a lot of people from my family and friends. I also got a good response from many people, and it doubled my courage.

I was a little embarrassed at first when I went to universities with my fellows and physically asked for donations from people. We come across a lot of questions and excuses.

· Why do we give money to you?

· We have come here for admissions, so we have no money for you.

· Some of them said that they didn’t even have money for themselves.

We also visited some restaurants, local shops, and Banks near the university, where we got good responses from some places that treated us very politely and gave us donations. On the other hand, responses from some people were bad enough that they were refusing to donate by giving lame excuses that the owner is not available or we have run out of money.

So, I conclude from this activity that some people have shown selfishness by neglecting to donate while, on the other hand, they are also enjoying a very comfortable life. On the contrary, some people show their kindness by serving Humanity. They want to help people in need and consider it their responsibility.

I have also learned that we should not give up in any field of life and work hard. If we fail at some point, we should try again and again. Then we will succeed one day.

4.Humma Jabbar

This was my first experience of collecting funds for a social cause. I had no previous experience like how to convince people to donate, how to make them socially and morally more responsible because it is also our religious responsibility to help or donate (do Sadka Khirat) if we have capacity.

Overall it was very difficult to convince people because they were ignoring my messages but then I formulated a well written message regarding the importance of charity and to what extent our charity can help and can cause a change and then sent the message to everyone in my contact list, most of the people just SEEN the message but few responded asking for the details and few actually donated.

This experience had really made me realize that how we as a society is so much behind in supporting social causes and is not willing to help people like so many people said to me that they have not received Salary and have no money with them so I made them realize that even 100 rupees is more than enough, it’s your willingness to help people that matters.

I received all my payments from Easy Paisa account.

5.Ali Raza

Hi, my name is Ali Raza currently students of Amal Batch 202. The research project was assigned by Amal academy. We were eight members for this collection. All member worked very sincerely, specially our project Group leader Areej Anwar who lead the project work and the rest of other talented member like Mr. Nouman, Hala Saleemi, Humma Jabbar,Zarish, Jawad and Ahtesham worked so well. We communicated like our family member and support each in all aspect of collection. This was very honors for us that we done work for Edhi Shb. Work Experience Work for the Edhi foundation was great experience for me in this we learn how to face the people and how to work for any donation. Our group interaction was very helpful for me because in this I learned motivation and hard work through work. Use of Social Media By use of social media, we collect the donation for the Edhi foundation we. I posted on the Facebook status where people also gave some donation for the Edhi. Such type of platforms is very helpful for us any positive ways. Visit of an Academy I visited the computer academy where I requested for donation I talked with the principal of that institution he gave me time for donation but he did not give any respond. Self-Contribution At the end I also contribute 1000 rupees for the donation. Conclusion With the kind supervision of Areej Anwar who gave the motivation to our group so that all the member participate in Edhi collection and able to collect fine amount. It was result of all group efforts.

6.Anum Ashraf

No doubt it’s a very stressful and challenging life experience for me to convince people to donate sum for the Edhi Foundation.

1.My first step is to spread this news on social media through various sources by making posters in the Group. But this was not quite beneficial because nobody responded.

2.Then I decided to convince people by contacting them individually. I had to cope with many different behaviors . Some made fun of this activity, and many others have said they didn’t have any accounts. Some people said they were not financially stable.

3.In villages, many people are unaware of online donations. So I decided to take money by hand and submit it personally through my account.

4. I have faced many challenges. But these challenges have a great impact on me. I learned how to persuade people

7.Jawad Ali

The overall experience of collecting funds for Edhi was yielding. I felt a sense of accomplishment and pleasure, that I have collected donations for the needy people which could help someone to live a better life.

I went to different places for funds collection individually and with my circle members. It was a first-in-a-lifetime experience for me to physically go and collect funds for some charity organization. During the collection drive, I went with my fellows to a university, a mall and some shops. We collected a significant amount of donations but there were lots of people who didn’t donate so I felt a feeling of despair and embarrassment.

But I decided that I should be firm in my goal and collect as much donation as I can. The other day I individually went to a shopping complex and visited different shops for collection but they didn’t donate anything but I kept on trying and contacted different businesses and at last, I got some donations from the owner of an ice factory.

I faced many challenges during the donation collection process and I went out of my comfort zone to gather donations. The most difficult thing for me was to go and ask people for donations. But I thought in my mind that I have to do this in order to help those people who literally need our financial support. In this way, I was able to collect donations effectively.

All in all the experience of gathering funds for Edhi has helped me to be strong and stick to my goal in spite of the challenges I faced. And I learned that when you lose your motivation after a failure, remember your why. Why do you want to achieve this? And move on to the next step towards your goal.