Why EDHI?
No Religion is Higher than Humanity.
While giving him two coins his mother said to him,
“ One coin is for you, the other is not. Do not forget to spend the other coin on the poor”.
The journey of Edhi Sahab started from those ‘Two Coins’. Now, the Edhi Foundation consists of multiple Shelter Homes, Drug Rehabilitation Centres, Emergency Services, Ambulance Services, Air Ambulance Services, Hospitals, Refugee Centres, Blood Donation Centres, Education Centres, and a lot more. All of these services are being run with no Foreign Funding. Local money, labor, skill is fulfilling local needs.
Keeping the importance of the aim of the Edhi Foundation, Aamal Academy encourages its fellows to help to collect donations for this NGO. Donations are very important for the working of the Edhi Foundation like any other NGO.
Our Group Circle (Group 2 of batch 178) planned the following ways to collect donations:
- We Made a poster regarding Edhi Fund Collection. We caught the attention of very few people through it than we expected.
- Then we started texting people and making people aware of the importance of this holy cause. Many people responded, a few positive, some negative, and mostly with no response.
- In the last option, we started to call people (all we could do in the Corona situation). Now, we were able to get responses from a large number of people. We collected donations through JazzCash, Easypaisa, Bank Account.
- Due to the Corona situation, we were not able to reach people in person, even then we managed to spread awareness.
How was the experience of collecting funds for a social cause?
We collected donations individually from our family, friends, neighbors, and from strangers. Most of the donations were collected from family and friends through online transactions. The experience as a whole was Great. We learned to accept failure. We were discouraged when nobody responded to our Whatsapp status and messages but in personal call proved a good way. A lot of people responded positively. Many people donated larger amounts than we expected, which boosted our morale. It was not easy to listen to people’s bad and demotivating comments. The cause of Edhi Sahab itself was a great motivation for us. In the end, Alhamdulilah, we managed to collect a good amount for Edhi Foundation.
Did you collect funds individually or in a group? How was it different?
We collected Funds individually due to the COVID-19 situation. It was not easy persuading people especially strangers individually. We learned that approaching and persuading people is easy in groups. It was difficult to persuade people individually.
What challenges did you face? And how did you overcome those challenges?
Approaching and Persuading people was difficult online. Also collecting donations through JazzCash or Easypaisa was also a challenge. Not all people had these facilities available. Some people did not know how to use them. Keeping yourself motivated was also a big challenge. As some people posed very Negative and disgusting comments.
How has this experience helped you in accepting failure?
The very first thing we learned through this activity is to accept Failure. We all shared our failures. Accepting failure was not easy especially when you are working for such a great purpose. Many people posed very discouraging comments like
‘ Abhi nahi han, kisi or sa la lo’.
‘You are from a respectable family, why are you doing such work?
However, we managed to keep our morale high. We collected a donation of more than 30,000 rupees collectively in just two weeks.
