Never Never Land: New Seeds of Hope

After a couple of weeks of really long days at the office, meaning I didn't come home till around 8.00 pm sometimes, I'm finally back in Islamabad. The scheduled cricket match was postponed due to a couple of reasons, including security issues in Lahore that need a lot more time to be able to coordinate properly. So the match has now been postponed till after the Cricket World Cup. To pacify the kids, we still had a Recognition and Awards ceremony for them at Zaman Park. The top 5 achievers from each school were invited and the top 12 achievers from all of Lahore were awarded personally signed cricket bats from Imran Khan himself. It was supposed to be 11 to represent the players on a cricket team, but we had a tie. In total, we hosted about 750 students, teachers and principals from over 40 schools in an event designed to honor their efforts in providing relief to Pakistan’s flood affected farmers.

The event began with a Tala'wat of the Holy Quran, followed by a welcome address from Mrs. Fauzia Kasuri where she briefed the audience about the New Seeds of Hope campain, introduced the IKF team and then Imran Khan himself. Imran Khan spoke about how Pakistan's youth needs to play a pivotal role in bringing about a positive change. Then the floor was opened to the students to ask questions. Surprisingly, there was a prevalence of political awareness in Lahore's youth and a lot of concern for the future of their country. Perhaps because we invited the top achievers who were obviously the most motivated and driven from their peers.

One of the most touching stories was that of the efforts from the students of Aabroo. Aabro is a low income welfare school, which still managed to raise Rs. 100,000.

http://www.aabroo.org/projects.php

For the event, I was asked to be the Volunteer Coordinator. We had a little over 40 volunteers, and I had to organize all the tasks before hand and delegate them along with coordinate any issues that came up as we went along. Unfortunately, most of the volunteers showed up late meaning we didnt have time to organize things the way we were supposed to before our guests started arriving. Somehow, especially thanks to a couple of really hard working volunteers, we pulled everything off in the end. It was a little chaotic, but a great event nonetheless.

It was also really nice to get to spend this much time with my family in Lahore. I think the longest I've stayed in Lahore has been a long weekend since we lived here. I got to spend a little time with everyone, and I definitely really loved the time I had with my Nomi Khala. Even if it was just having coffee and updating her after work, or having breakfast with her in the morning before heading out.