After Karachi, Hyderabad walls also become charitable

Wall of Kindness set up on Thandi Sarak, Wadu Wah roads in two days

HYDERABAD:

Karachi's charitable walls have inspired Hyderabad residents to set up two such walls on Friday with plans to set up more in the future.

The Pak-US Alumni Association Jamshoro chapter's director for youth affairs, Huda Bhurgari, and her four-member team set up a Wall of Kindness on Thandi Sarak. The students brought several sets of clothes, books, school bags and shoes to kick-start the donation drive.



"The next thing we plan to do is to sustain the activity for a few days or until citizens take responsibility for this wall," said Bhurgari, after she informally inaugurated the wall around 3pm on Friday. She succeeded in drawing dozens of benefactors, besides her team, during the first hour of the activity.

Painted with the colours of sky with pastures and a peacock gazing from a tree branch, the wall is drilled with five sets of hooks - enough to hold dozens of clothes. A footpath under it provides additional space for books, bags, shoes, food and others items.

"We painted the peacock because it contains an element of beauty besides being a traditional bird that also happens to remind people of Tharparkar - a drought stricken district of Sindh where the people live in perpetual need of help," said Bahadur Qureshi, a team member, who recently graduated from Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences. He oversaw the painting work which took over five hours to complete.

An adjacent traffic police post, built under a railway bridge in Hussainabad, provides a semblance of security against thieves, though they will be difficult to spot in the middle of beneficiaries. The wall's location is surrounded by neighbourhoods inhabited mostly by people in need. Since it is the junction of National Highway, Auto Bahn and Thandi Sarak roads, a large number of people are expected to pass by.



Qadeer Sahito was one of the passers-by who parked his motorcycle near the wall to see what was happening. "Are they doing the same donation which we recently saw on the television [in news telecast]?" he asked one of the bystanders.

An elderly couple, whose attire made them look like beggars, questioned what items were being distributed. "Can we pick the things that we want?" they asked after they were explained the concept behind the wall.

Mehtab Khaskheli, who appeared to be around 10 years old, ran away with four shirts and t-shirts as other children chased after him trying to grab one or more of his shirts. "I will wear them all," he shouted.

A day earlier, activist and health practitioner Dr Shamim Ansari has set up a wall of kindness on Wadu Wah road in Qasimabad, just over a kilometre away from the other wall.

Meanwhile, social activist Ehsan Moeed Shaikh is looking for a location that is accessible to both the rich and the needy. "Setting up outside St Bona Ventures High School [the school in downtown Hyderabad from where he graduated] is one of the options if we get permission from the management," he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2016.