Outside the comfort zone

Fatima Iftikhar
Aug 25, 2017 · 3 min read

I recently came to know how generous my people are! :’) Pakistanis are not well known in the world for their kindness and generosity, but for extremism. But today I am so proud to share at this platform that we, as a nation are kind and gentle. :’) I am not saying it merely on the basis of thoughts, I have experienced it. I am one of those people who mostly look critically towards the image of Pakistan but I am glad to have my perspective changed.

So, we got this project of fund raising for none other than our own Abdul Sattar Edhi Sahab’s welfare foundation. It was a challenge for me and my group. None of us has ever done this before. As it required us to get out of our comfort zone, we were nervous and confused. We gathered at a place and did brain storming. It was clear that we didn’t want to beg as we were a bit egoistic at that time, although we were trying not to, but we still were. So we came up with the following solutions;

1- Go to academies and give them a presentation about our cause and then collect funds. 2- Do a bake sell to raise funds 3- Set up a stall at a shopping mall

Now we had to execute the ideas. Since all of the group members were busy with their personal life and of course we had to consider that as well. We realized that the first two ideas need a lot of effort and time and their are more risk factors of failure. Although we were ready to face any kind of failure but we had to be careful about the time as well and we had to choose the idea where there is comparatively lesser chance of failure. So we decided to go with the third Idea.

There was another problem, all of my group fellows lived far apart and we had to decide a day to gather. So all of us sacrificed our routines for one day and we reached at the shopping mall “Hyperstar” on Tuesday afternoon. With all the excitement and courage, we entered the mall and went to the management team to seek their permission and we got a big “NO” by them.

It was a disappointment. We came out of the mall with sad faces. Although they gave us the contact number of manager by informing us that they don’t allow the donation campaigns over there. We thought that it would be useless to call the manager. So after a few minutes, we decided to put our egos in our pockets, prepared an elevator pitch and we entered into the market with the money box. We were scared that people might not trust us, there will be some concerns but when we entered the first shop and gave our elevator pitch the man gave us money by saying “ In the name of Edhi”. It was a moment of encouragement. It raised our morale.

After that, we gained more confidence and we kept going. People gave us money according to their capacity.

Generous shopkeepers of Fortress stadium market

People refused as well, It was a bit disappointing as well but we kept going with the positive attitude. In one of the shops, we met an old man who was collecting money for Edhi sahab on his own in an empty bottle of coca-cola on which Edhi Sahab’s picture was printed. He gave us that bottle. It was so over whelming to see that people are that supportive and we realized what Edhi Sahab has done for this nation. His name unites us. :’) This project took us out of our comfort zone and it enhanced our problem solving skills.

Also, I am super proud of my group fellows who took time out of their busy schedule and showed up for this wonderful cause. ^_^

(From left to right) Etisham, Ali, Mohsin, Asma, Amina and Fatima

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Fatima Iftikhar

Written by

- Live and let live

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