Nurturing lives, one meal at a time

When she heard on the news about a mother of two killing her children by suffocating them with a pillow because she couldn’t feed them for two days, Parveen Saeed was deeply grieved. But the tragedy motivated her to do whatever she could to prevent such incidents as much as possible.

“Love of a mother was lost and hunger won,” Saeed thought as she came to the conclusion that hunger is at the root of all problems. On January 1, 2002, Saeed set up a community kitchen known as Khana Ghar in Surjani Town, Karachi, with the purpose of feeding people who cannot afford meals. In a year, she moved the location to Lyari Basti.

Right outside her office is the kitchen and a crowd of people patiently waiting in long queues. Sixty-three-year old Saeed who has two daughters, studied journalism from the University of Karachi and pursued it for a while but presently, she runs Khana Ghar full time.

“It was God’s will that I took this initiative,” she says, dressed in a blue shalwar-kameez and a striped dupatta. “My husband and I thought that we must start helping those less privileged than us, even if we are only able to feed two people. But by God’s grace, today we feed almost 8,000 people every day.”

While setting up Khana Ghar, Saeed also continued with philanthropic work in her neighbourhood — sometimes donating a bag of flour or giving someone ration or cooking for someone. Eventually, Khana Ghar took off.
Initially, Saeed used to cook herself but now she has employed cooks. The community kitchen offers roti and curry at Rs 3/meal so that people do not feel it is charity and can uphold their dignity, however, if someone cannot afford to pay at all, they get the meal free of cost.

“It has been a decade since I started coming to Khana Ghar to get meals,” says Khushroodi, an elderly widow who lives alone and was standing in the queue for a meal. “If it weren’t for these people, I don’t know how I would have managed. My sons don’t look after me. It is as if I am dead for them.”

The queues outside Khana Ghar only get longer as inflation hits record-levels in the country. Although the inflation rate has trickled down to 27.38% in August from a record high 38% in May, food inflation still remains at 38.51%, with fuel and electricity prices sky-rocketing.

Pakistan has been reeling with an economic crisis for more than a year now but it is the poor who bear the worst.

“The cost of living has become so expensive that even if my husband and I combine our salaries, we are unable to run the household anymore”, says Akhtari, mother to two sons and four daughters, who started working as a maid five years ago. “I started coming to Khana Ghar a year ago. I come here to get lunch as well as dinner and that’s how we manage. If it weren’t for Khana Ghar, it would have been terribly difficult for us.”

“When we started, 50 kilograms of flour would cost Rs450 and now it costs more than Rs7,000,” recounts Saeed. “Imagine how hard it is for the poor who do not have employment, no one to look after them, and no one to consider their hardships. The poor in this country have no resources so how will they manage their lives in this back-breaking inflation? Forget about two meals, people aren’t even able to eat once a day.”

Saeed was awarded the Pride of Performance by the government of Pakistan for her work last year however she said the government has never come forward to directly support her work. “The common people who could afford to give donations and overseas Pakistanis supported us”, Saeed says adding that all Khana Ghar needs is flour. “I request people to help us with getting flour as the prices have increased a lot. Without assistance from people or without correct government policies, curbing inflation and eradicating poverty is not possible. If we want Pakistan to progress, we need to defeat hunger. It is the root of all problems. I have seen the youth pursue a criminal path because of hunger.”

With the economic crisis compounding, the number of people asking for help has increased while donors to the initiative have decreased. “There has been a huge increase in people coming to Khana Ghar and a decrease in donors as well as our resources,” says Saeed. “So many mothers come to us and ask us to pay their children’s tuition fees, elderly come to us asking for medical expenses — the economic situation has strongly impacted the society. Children can no longer afford to take care of their elderly parents, there are parents that Khana Ghar has adopted and provides them food and clothing. But for how long can we continue to do this without resources?”

“It is all God’s will and it is Him who has made it all possible for me to be the medium through which to provide for His people,” she concludes. “I trust He will see me through this.”

Somaiya Hafeez is a freelance journalist and can be reached at somaiyah.hafeez2000@gmail.com. All facts and information are the sole responsibility of the writer