Flood assistance: Teenage students raise Rs600,000 selling t-shirts

'A' level students from KGS sell colourful shirts at The Forum to generate funds for flood relief.

KARACHI: Students wearing bright-coloured shirts bombarded shoppers with their persistent salesmanship at The Forum mall all through Saturday.

“Help the flood victims,” said one. “Would you like to buy a shirt? Yes, ok good,” insisted another, as he pulled the customer to a stall set up next to the second escalator in the mall.

An enthusiastic group of first-year A’ level students from Karachi Grammar School (KGS), from varied backgrounds — a Chinese, a Pakistani, an Indian, a half-German, two Christians, a Parsi and several others — began their weekly sale this Saturday. The cause was boldly printed on their t-shirts: Flood Appeal Help Now!

Priced at Rs500 each, the shirts come in sizes from XXS to XXL in lime green, grey, white and blue. The shirts, tagged Kings Apparel are also available at Tali, a shop in Shahbaz Commercial Area and with the help of a team of volunteers who advertise for the cause. The team had managed to collect Rs27,140 during the first half of the day and hoped to double the amount by the evening.

The volunteers agreed that 16-year-old Kayhan Feroze Qaiser made it all happen. “I got the idea from a family friend in Canada and I decided to design my own shirt and raise money for flood rehabilitation,” said Kayhan, a student of computer science.

He explained that this was not the first time his shirts are being put up for sale. “This started three to four months ago at the KGS bake sale, where we sold over 200 shirts and made Rs100,000,” he said. Since Kayhan designed the shirts himself and managed to get 3,000 ones printed free-of-charge, he managed to donate all his earnings to Karachi Relief Trust, who will help rebuild homes and set up businesses for flood survivors.

“It had a lot to do with luck and sheer generosity on the part of the involved parties,” he added modestly. And by “involved parties”, he meant Aziz Memon, owner of a cloth factory who provided 100 per cent cotton shirts made in a variety of colours, without any charges. The mall also gave the stall free of charge.

Besides the desire to collect funds to help the rehabilitation process, Kayhan explained how the shirts were a way for people to remember the floods.

“Was there another flood?” questioned a middle-aged woman, suggesting that the floods were old news. It is for this reason that Kayhan believes “people forget the floods after the immediate stages and stop donating”.  He added that “this is where the money is really needed: the rehabilitation process.”

“This is our country and we must take the flood survivors out of the water ... literally,” said another volunteer, Alizeh Amer. Being a rower, she drew parallels between the sport and their efforts. “It’s a team effort and whoever has the strength and determination to pull through will take the prize home,” added volunteer Zehra Notta. Zehrah was sitting next to Aaron Hsieh, who was their most popular salesman that day.

Sameer Mahmood pointed out that they have raised Rs600,000 after selling nearly 1,200 shirts and they are hoping to sell 1,500 more over the next month. “We’ll be at Forum every Saturday from now,” he added.

“The shirts are trendy now. People ask me where I got the shirt from every time I wear it and there is at least one other person wearing the shirt at my tuitions,” said 17-year-old Umair Sharif, another volunteer.

“Its great to see these young adults participate in social activities,” said Naveen Shakir, 28. Manal, 26, agreed that: “This generation will inherit our present problems so it’s great to see how eager they are to help resolve them.”

People of all ages came forward to purchase the shirts, or simply make donations. “Sure, a lot of people ignore us and simply walk by as we try and make a sale but that doesn’t bother us one bit because the others laud us for our efforts,” said Alizeh Amer.

Next Saturday, 30 students will wear these shirts as they appear for their SATs, after which they will all head to the mall for the second day at the stall.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2011.