A small break from worries

300 people get free iftar and dinner.

ISLAMABAD: Around three hundred residents of Bekhaida kachi abadi in F-11/4 gathered to receive free iftari and dinner on Sunday.

Twelve-year-old Haniya said she was very excited when the Change for a Smile team visited them two days ago with tokens for iftari and dinner. “I’m enjoying playing with my friends here, this garden is very nice.”

Attaullah, who coordinates with the residents of Bekhaida for such charity events, said that last year, the government coordinated with him to give all the residents food rations on the twenty-first of Ramazan, but he has yet to hear from them this year.

Shahista, 20 and a primary school dropout, said, “I couldn’t help but laugh at the wavy lines all the women made to get meals, it reminded me of the crooked lines from my school days.”

The total population of the kachi abadi is about eight hundred, but the organiser’s funds couldn’t feed everyone.

Sophia Arandia, one of the organisers, said, “We wish we could’ve fed every resident but we could [only] accommodate so many with the Rs34,000 we received in donations from friends and family.”

She and her sisters Tania and Jasmine started the not-for-profit initiative back in 2010 with a goal of using donations in loose change to help the underprivileged.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2012.