‘Good things come in small, compassionate packages’

At least 1,200 people from across the country share 1,500 stories of their acts of compassion.

KARACHI:

In times of trouble, terrorism and tyre burning, can any nation remain compassionate towards fellow human beings?

An exploration of compassion and empathy, or the lack thereof in Pakistan was the purpose of the event organised by the Charter for Compassion Society of Pakistan (CFC) - a local initiative based on the charter for compassion, a document drafted by people from different faiths and nationalities that aims to bring the world together.

They held an awards ceremony to distribute certificates of recognition among the winners of a month-long internet-based activity - ‘Acts of Compassion: The Ramazan Challenge’ on Thursday at Marriott Hotel. The challenge was organised in collaboration with the CFC in Jordan. At least 1,200 people from across the country shared around 1,500 stories of their acts of compassion.

The CFC put together a panel of artists, musicians and two of the challenge winners to talk about what, how and why they were compassionate.

According to singer Tina Sani, we all want to do good things but we don’t do them because we think it won’t make a difference. “Our attitude is a reflection of our mindset which tells us that we can’t bring about a change,” she said.

Artist and philanthropist Jimmy Engineer said that it was really quite simple - either we are compassionate or we are not. “Compassion is about being nice and good, even to those who don’t return the goodness,” he said.

“Pakistan can rise above the rest if its citizens work together with compassion. You can change lives with your actions.”

The president of the Pakistan Software House Association, Jehan Ara, talked about what the challenge had meant to her.

“I started posting my acts of compassion just to get other people started,” Ara said. “The purpose of the activity was to inspire other people and encourage them to do similar things.” She was presented with a certificate of special recognition by the entire core committee for her consistent participation.

One of the five winners of the challenge, Faiza Saleem, said that no good deed was a small deed. She told the audience how, at first, she was reluctant to share her acts of compassion with people online but after reading what other people had done she got motivated to do more and post about it.  The other winner present at the event, Kamni Siraj, said that the one thing all religions had in common was to be good human beings. She added that by opening up and embracing life after meeting a six-year-old leukemia patient at a hospital she was ready to deal with life courageously.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2011. 

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelt the name of winner Faiza Saleem. The correction has been made.