Giving Back: My Journey in Helping Others
“Never be embarrassed to ask donations for others.” — Unknown.
Around two years ago, I came across this quote, still don’t know where it came from but it has impacted my thinking a lot. I have been working in a welfare organization, Kaar-e-Kamal, for almost 2 years now where I collect funds from my circle, buy essential rations and provide it to the needy families. At first, I was unable to collect even few hundred rupees and I felt embarrassed for asking money from others. At that time, I read this quote, which says you should never be ashamed as long as you are not asking it for yourself. It emphasized the idea that when we ask for support, we’re advocating for those in need, which means we are empathetic for them, and that’s something to be appreciated, not something to be embarrassed about.
For last two weeks, I needed this even more, as we were collecting donations for two prestigious organizations, Akhuwat and Edhi Foundation. Since 2001, Akhuwat Foundation has been dedicated to reducing poverty in Pakistan. They currently operate 301 schools and 3 colleges, providing free education to more than 47,000 students. Over 3.23 million pieces of clothing have been given to those in need. Additionally, they have offered free treatment to 592,000 patients with hepatitis and diabetes. Financial assistance has been extended to over 2000 khawajasiras, and through Islamic Microfinance, interest-free loans totaling 180 billion have been distributed to support small businesses.
Edhi Foundation is mainly famous for its ambulance service but it provides a various types of services such as providing free shroud and burial services to unclaimed dead bodies, shelter for the disabled and destitute people, orphans and abandoned children, provision of free hospitals and dispensaries in the highly neglected areas, rehabilitation of drug addicts, and so on.
The experience of collecting donations was challenging as well as memorable. There was a lot of wait for results to appear, but the results were good enough that all the effort was worth it. I collected the funds individually as I was not able to make up with other fellows due to my busy routine and I mostly carried out this donation campaign online, reaching to potential donors on different social media platforms. I had it planned to raise this campaign at my hostel physically too, but the time didn’t allow me to do it.
One of the main challenge I faced was the people ignoring my messages and leaving them on seen. If the campaign had been face-to-face, the interaction is a lot different and we expect some arguments or donations from others in that case. But, here I felt a bit helpless as they were not replying to my messages. To overcome this, I changed my technique a bit. I didn’t send them the donation message at first, but initiated a conversation with them and then took it towards the donation part. In this case, I was able to get better responses from individuals.
Apart from that, I kept reminding them to donate after day or two, so that in case their mind changes, they can donate. Another challenge was to make donors donate in the official accounts of these organizations. Usually, when I collect monthly donations, my regular donors send it to my account and I utilize those to buy rations and provide them pictures of that as proof to build their trust. They had my account information saved, so they were more comfortable to donate to those accounts instead of official ones. I made sure to transfer those funds to official accounts and provide them the proof. I think, providing proof promotes transparency and it encourages your donors to donate more as it illustrates their money is being spend well.
These challenges helped me overcome one thing, which is the never quit attitude. I wasn’t getting donations at first but I kept trying which eventually yielded positive results.
