Edhi For All | Societineers
CHALLENGING YOUR PROBLEM SKILLS TO ACCEPT FAILURE
“People have become educated, but have not yet become human.” — Abdul Sattar Edhi
Abdul Sattar Edhi, a name which is known by many was the biggest humanitarian Pakistan ever had. He found his charity organization ‘Edhi Foundation’ in 1951, which is still taking care of people’s sufferings all over the country. After his demise in 2016, his son, Faisal Edhi took over the responsibilities of the Edhi Foundation and he has often shown concerns over a significant decrease in the donations. To counter this problem and to develop problem-solving skills to accept failure in the youth, Amal Academy assigns a 2-week fund-raising campaign to its fellows. We were asked to raise funds for the Edhi Foundation through different modes and creative techniques. I have been leading one of the groups of Amal fellows and here’s my take on the experience on behalf of my group. This was the first time for all of us to raise funds as a group and we faced some challenges and gained some experiences as well.
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EXPERIENCE:
It was a bit challenging experience for us to collect funds for the social cause because most people refused or did not acknowledge the cause which was a bit discouraging for us but we did not lose hope and continued the cause for 2 weeks. We reached out to almost 1500 people including strangers, a few NGOs, and the shops in our area. The overall experience in collecting funds was overwhelming as it taught us the lesson to never give up at the start when hurdles are maximum. We learned to not let the negative feedback get to us as there’s always some positivity after a negative experience.
INDIVIDUAL VS GROUP ACTIVITY:
Due to the COVID situation, we couldn’t work as a group to host stalls or anything. We worked individually for 2 weeks and then the total amount was collected by one of the members to donate to the Edhi foundation.
CHALLENGES:
1- Ignorance of people:
The majority of people including our friends and relatives did not respond to our messages.
2- Fewer Follow-ups:
People responded to us to pay in a day or two, but the amount we received was way too less. When we asked for follow-ups, they came up with different excuses.
3- Medium Of Transaction:
Due to the COVID situation, we could not go out much. So the major issue we dealt with is the lack of in-hand transactions. People who wanted to donate lesser amounts felt reluctant to donate online.
4- Lack of Faith:
The biggest challenge that we faced at the start was to convince people that the funds are not for our personal benefits but rather for the Edhi Foundation. Amal academy helped us by handing over the permission letter which helped in convincing people.
“Life is about accepting the challenges along the way, choosing to keep moving forward, and savoring the journey.”― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
REFLECTION ON THIS JOURNEY TO ACCEPT FAILURE:
As I have mentioned earlier that this was the first experience of collecting funds for a social cause for our circle members. The whole experience was intriguing in so many ways. We managed to work on transferable skills like teamwork, problem-solving, communication, and management.
There were times when we got discouraged by demeaning responses. We felt like giving up, but then we managed to push each other up and carry on for this noble cause. The experience helped us to accept failures. We learned that we have to face challenges to be successful. It’s not a smooth journey of action and success but it’s a bumpy ride where we have to try, try, and try or in other words, do ‘Kam Kam Kam’ until success. We tried a strategy to reach out to some of our friends who are bloggers for a shout-out. On a lighter note, some people appreciated our efforts too, the way we carried out our work while managing our studies in parallel.
Looking back at our two-week journey, all we can say is: “The experience was worth it.
ENDING NOTE
We collected a total of 12,850 Rupees in the time span of 2 weeks due to limited resources but we are proud of the little role we have played for the sake of humanity. It was possible due to the encouragement of our facilitators at Amal Academy. What other tips do you guys have for us to help us in future campaigns? Looking forward to positive responses.
“No one has ever become poor by giving.”― Anne Frank
