
The Persian poet Rumi once said that if you become a helper of hearts, springs of wisdom will flow from your heart. If all you do is taking, the universe will balance things out by taking from you. So, you have to, from time to time, give back to this world. You have to deliberately make life owe you by being consistently noble. And this, I believe can only happen when your giving is selfless. You have to forget about getting something back and let your benefits sneak up on you when you least expect them. Not giving back will have the world take from you, and giving back with expectations of immediate returns will inevitably disappoint you. Rumi says, in generosity and helping others, be like a river. The lesson to take from this is to want to keep your flow alive because not doing so means letting go of whom and how you truly aspire to be.
But this is not news to most people. Most people know how important it is to be generous and help others. Many yearn to be of service to their fellow human beings. But only some go out of their way to actually make a difference. This is a story of how I saw a few individuals plan their journey of generosity and eventually set out on it. This is a piece, not for informing or advertisement, but to inspire positive action.
What began as a thoughtful idea many months prior to its execution saw its first successful event on the 12th of October, 2019. Street Library had its first Pop-up School Event for underprivileged children at Multipurpose Park in F6 Islamabad. The aim of Street Library, from the time of ideation, was to serve as an open cultural space for children to get much needed exposure to the wonders of reading, writing and arts. The vision of its visionaries is to strengthen communities by fostering essential creativities of communication and expression. I had the privilege of doing initial transcribing of the idea from thought to text form. And now, the time had come when I had the privilege of attending the first event so that I can tell its story to the rest of the world.
The event was in line with their purpose, i.e. to design initiatives and programs that can appropriately respond to the educational needs of vulnerable children across Pakistan by providing sustainable resources for literacy and cultural and personal development. I began by assessing the event for components that make it congruent with the purpose. Pakistan is among the nations with the lowest literacy in the world. So, you can trust that the chosen children are most likely in need of the program. Nonetheless it is an important component to be clarified. The children invited were from two groups. One came from the SOS orphanage and the other from Master Ayub’s Park School. SOS Children’s Village is a private social welfare organization facilitating charity for orphans and abandoned children. Master Ayub Park School (MAPS) is located in a public park where underprivileged children are taught free of cost. The next component to be verified was whether they were taking steps toward providing sustainable resources for literacy and cultural and personal development. The program for the event included writing, reading, painting and music exercises. The central organizers clarified that exercises cultivating interest in sciences will be added in subsequent events to achieve their vision as a whole. The event was indeed in line with its purpose.
The event started at two in the afternoon. The team had set up three colorful tents for shade from the afternoon sun. When the children arrived, I couldn’t help feeling that the excitement on their faces was similar to when students are taken on a field trip. They had big nervous smiles on their faces. They took short nervous steps towards the venue, following their teachers. The volunteers and organizers did a fantastic job in making the kids feel comfortable. They showed loving and caring body language and the children started to gradually relax.
The first activity that they had planned was a painting activity. Each child was given a small canvas, paints and brushes and was lovingly given instructions. The only rule to follow was to not remove already applied lines of tape on the canvases. Other than that, the children were asked to paint whatever their heart desired. I observed some hesitation in the beginning but after a while, the kids started enjoying themselves. After they were all finished painting their hearts out, the organizers set them together on the ground in the middle of the venue. After they had dried, they arranged them in a way that the lines of tapes on the canvases formed an interesting geometric pattern. They carefully removed the tape to reveal a mural that signified what a unified artistic effort can produce. And the product was beautiful. It was to be put on display on a wall close to a nearby outdoor cafe. What mattered most, in my opinion, was the look of pride on the children’s faces after their masterpiece was revealed to them.
Reading and writing exercises were next on the program. The kids were shuffled and divided into two groups. Each group went under one of two tents. Under one tent, a group participated in the reading exercise and the other group in the other tent participated in the writing exercise. In the reading exercise, an instructor helped and motivated kids to read simple passages and dramatically act them out. The passages comprised of messages that emphasized on important lessons of cleanliness, truth and love. I found the writing exercise to be especially fascinating. The children were to write postcards for either someone they knew or their future self. Most children opted to write to their future selves, focusing on their aspirations and the goals they hoped to achieve. It was great to experience the thoughts they had for their futures. The kids inspired me to never not dream; a very important lesson for all of us. After they were done with these exercises, the groups changed tents so that each kid can benefit from both of the invaluable activities and the lessons they brought with them.
The last immersive activity was a musical one and it was conducted by Drum Circle Islamabad. Drum Circle Islamabad engages local communities through music and melody by awakening their inner instrumentalist. They use drums and djembes to help people break from the monotony of urbane living by bringing them together to a circle of much needed musical relief. Drums, djembes and a group of highly energetic children: a recipe for fun and madness. It was smart to have the activity kids will have most fun doing in the end. They would leave happy and excited. I think it’s great that the mad fun part is the last thing they would remember about the event. The whole group participated in another unified artistic effort and produced loud and beautiful patterns that attracted many onlookers. People that would normally visit the park every evening for their walks stopped and admired the ecstatic faces with drums. Truly inspirational.
The event approached its final stages around 6 in the evening but honestly, I did not want it to end. I’m sure many others present there felt the same way. Everyone took final group photos to commemorate the day of learning and kindness. They were gathering these moments that I’m sure they’ll recall later as treasured memories. After taking pictures, boxes of biryani were distributed among everyone. Biryani makes everything even better.
I observed how the visionaries, after taking this very important step in their plans of welfare, looked emotional. Good emotional. They felt enouement. Enouement is the feeling of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self. Everyone deserves to get feelings of pleasant enouement. And what better way to feel it than to feel it being helper of hearts, with springs of wisdom flowing from hearts.
I’m hoping this passage awakes the generous and the helpful within all those who read it. I hope those that wake up are inspired to take action. I hope they find ways to make positive and impactful changes that they can be proud of. And in case they’re having a hard time finding such ways, I suggest they help the Street Library initiative out. It provides opportunities like “Build a Library”, “Adopt a Library”, “Fund a Child” and “Buy a Library”. These are very cool and fulfilling initiatives people can take part in. The Street Library team can be contacted for more details on them. But even if you’re unable to do any of these due to some limitations, you can volunteer to help out in welfare educational events that Street Library organizes in the future. You have to, from time to time, give back to this world. You have to deliberately make life owe you by being consistently noble. I’ll end this the way I started it, with a saying from Rumi,
“Be a lamp, a life boat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.”
M Rayyan Nasser
