One man fights all odds to empower the youth of Pakistan

Qureshi fought off death, poverty in his struggle for education; he now helps others in their struggles.


Ishrat Ansari September 29, 2014

KARACHI: The very day he topped Karachi Board’s Intermediate Commerce 2005 examinations (among boys), Waqar Ahmed Qureshi, now 26, was diagnosed with an incurable disease and told he wouldn’t survive more than three months. He beat the odds and was recently presented the ‘Karachi Youth Icon Award 2014’.

The event was held during the three-day peace summit in which 600 men and women, between the ages of 18 and 25 years participated. The summit was part of the larger ‘I Am Karachi’ campaign.

Speaking about his condition, Qureshi said:  “I did not lose hope and continued with my studies, despite the knowledge that my days were numbered.” He only told his uncle about the condition and used to visit a physician every other day. Neither his parents nor his siblings knew about his health problems.

Qureshi intended to pursue higher education after his matriculation but his father could not support him financially. “I had a dream that I wanted to realise at any cost,” he said. To continue his studies, he worked at a poultry farm during the days for Rs1,500 a month and attended classes at a coaching centre in the evenings. “Despite repeated showers, I used to reek of chick feed odour so they used to make me sit outside the classroom,” he recalled.

Himself a victim of the dismal environs of the underprivileged locale of Korangi, Qureshi resolved to give back to society by contributing towards improving the condition of the area’s youths. He set up an NGO, Youth Empowerment Society, (YES) in July 2013, to guide and inspire them so that they could lead meaningful lives.

Qureshi was selected for the award for working effectively for the betterment of society. The NGO’s performance was reviewed from their Facebook page. The ‘Youth Peace and Education Conference’ in Korangi on April 16, 2014, was a marked success. So were the around 45 Social Action Programmes that involved over 5,000 youth of Korangi.  The project was greatly appreciated as it made the youth realise it was not only the government’s responsibilities to resolve their problems, said Qureshi. They organised various activities, such as cleanliness drives, career counselling sessions, recycling drives, donation of wheelchairs and setting up medical camps.

Another programme was the Pakistan Peace Campaign in which they visited 13 cities in 16 days in June 2014. The participants comprised two male and two female members. It was a mammoth tour as they had to travel 8,000 kilometres in 16 days, sighed Qureshi. The cities they visited included Sukkur, Pannu Aqil, Lahore, Multan, Rohri, Peshawar, Quetta, Kashmir, Islamabad and DI Khan. YES organised various activities at a number of schools and colleges in collaboration with the NGOs working in each city. They organised interactive dialogue sessions, activity-based training and motivational lectures.

“During our visit, we found that the youth of Kashmir were very intelligent and enthusiastic,” said Qureshi, speaking about his experience of the tour. “Sindh was a disappointment because even graduates struggled to string together a single sentence about any issue,” said Qureshi.

Karachi Youth Initiative (KYI) spokesperson, Farhan Iqbal, believes that the youths of underprivileged areas are prone to get involved in illegal activities because they do not have much else to do. They do not have a long-term vision, nor someone to mentor them.  “We teamed up with YES in two events and I can honestly say that Qureshi is the best motivational trainer and peace activist. There are a handful of youth groups working is Korangi and Landhi and YES is one of the best,” said Iqbal.

YES has dozens of active members. Ghaniur-Rehman, 22, who has been a student of Qureshi, joined YES last year. He is studying to be a certified financial officer and accountant. “I was inspired by Qureshi and followed in his footsteps. I have conducted sessions in 10 government schools for youth mobilisation,” he said.

Iqbal said that they have been working together for the last two years. “Qureshi is very committed and he will have a bright future in the development sector, provided he keeps working with the same spirit,” he hoped.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30th, 2014.

 

COMMENTS (1)

Saad A. Shah | 9 years ago | Reply

Well Done my dear brother, life & death is not in our hands but surely you lived it big time! Even today I heard of Brittany Maynard for the first time and just learnt about you. I am happy and sad at the same time as many of us believe they are here forever and live the rest of their lives in misery and end up complaining, but then there are people like you who are here to inspire many souls.

May God give you peace and may He cure your incurable disease, He is Almighty after all!.

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