Fundraising for the EDHI Foundation
The Edhi Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Abdul Sattar Edhi. Abdul Sattar Edhi passed away on July 8, 2016. Bilquis Edhi, Abdul Sattar Edhi’s wife and a nurse by profession, is in charge of the organization’s maternity and adoption services. The Edhi Foundation is based in Karachi.
Edhi lived a very simple and modest life despite becoming famous and receiving a large number of donations. Neither Bilquis Edhi nor Adbul Sattar Edhi received a salary. People began inviting Edhi to their festivals and ceremonies after he gained fame, and Edhi stated in one of his interviews, ‘’Don’t invite me to any of your ceremonies as it only wastes my time that is devoted to people and their well-being.”
A wonderful synergy between his personality and actions exudes the qualities of a model hero. Edhi’s heroism is validated by his selflessness in donating not only money but also time to the poor. Edhi went out into the streets of Pakistan to peacefully ask for donations from the citizens.
Faisal Edhi, his son, is carrying on his father’s mission. According to Faisal Edhi, the foundation’s funds have plummeted since Edhi’s death, as various extremists began spreading propaganda against Edhi. He stated, “I can only pray and ask others to continue donating funds to this foundation.”
The Quran says, “And whatever you spend, He will replace it; and He is the best of the providers” (Ch 34:39).”
This year, AMAL Academy has given us the opportunity to be a part of this golden mission and work together to raise funds for the Edhi Foundation. AMAL Academy has been carrying out this mission for many years, and now we have the opportunity to contribute. We were assigned to collect funds over the course of two weeks, during which we exerted all of our efforts. What could be better than volunteering for a good cause? Nothing, for sure. We collected a total of 17,000 rupees under the AMAL Academy Fund collection campaign.
Let us dive into our fundraising journey over the next 14 days.
Nowadays, persuading people to donate to a social cause can be difficult, and we experienced the same difficulty. As with the COVID pandemic, we had some constraints and were not free to move into societies to collect funds, and convincing people while taking all necessary precautions was difficult. Most of us had less interaction with people outside, so we were having difficulty collecting funds from society and the streets.
However, fellow members of the group hold different opinions according to their experiences. Some of us had a very amazing experience accepting challenges and loved the opportunity to run our very first social campaign.
We took the initiative and started to donate from our own side after that we reached out to our family and friends. Some of the group members connected to their hosel mates and some went door to door to collect funds. Their efforts made our campaign successful as a whole.
When it comes to engaging with people, we approached them individually because we were all from different areas and couldn’t approach them as a group. However, if we had the opportunity to raise funds as a group, it would have been far more fruitful because as a group, we would have been able to convince more people by meeting them in person. Furthermore, people prefer to listen to groups of people rather than a single individual.
On the journey to fund collection, we faced many challenges, but one of the most difficult challenges we faced was other people’s denial. Each of us faced rejection, but what was more important was our desire to collect funds, and we didn’t give up and stood up again. Most people gave us no response, and some even gave us a negative response like “oh, you have now started charity work,” but nothing disappoints you when you know why you are working for it.
We decided that we had to reach out to a large number of people. We ignored the negative thoughts and contacted each and every person. We started updating people on our collection report via our status and message updates. So, maybe they could believe in us.
We also showed the letter to some organizations so they could contribute with us, but unfortunately, they were not willing to. Moreover, some people do not believe that we are actually collecting funds for the Edhi Foundation, so we managed to share the account details and asked them to donate to the official accounts.
Despite the challenges and hardships, this journey taught us a lot and helped us grow a little more. We realised that on the path to a noble cause, there will be many hardships and challenges, but if you give up, you will not be able to spread the good dead. However, even if you only persuade one person to donate, you have succeeded and are a SUPERHERO for someone. Perhaps for a homeless child or for parents in need of assistance.
