Disclaimer*: The articles shared under 'Your Voice' section are sent to us by contributors and we neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of any facts stated below. Parhlo News will not be liable for any false, inaccurate, inappropriate or incomplete information presented on the website. Read our disclaimer.
This post is also available in: العربية (Arabic) اردو (Urdu)
This story is neither for those who want to find happiness nor is it destined to bring any life-changing revelation (though, having more donations would definitely help in the cause). This story is about a bunch of teenagers, just regular teenage boys from a relatively privileged class – neither elite nor filthy rich (most of these boys annoy their families like any regular rebellious teens). These boys used to play together, every day and after their game, they’d go to any fancy place to hang out.
So, once they had to stick to a nearby ‘dhaba’ to have tea, some snack, when something happened, something that changed their mindset. They saw ‘real life’ on the road! Not the protected life they were used to, so began their everyday visit to roadside, and with each passing day, they’d meet some extraordinary person at some roadside stall/cart, encounter strange stories – I say extraordinary, because for these privileged boys, seeing people struggle to make ends meet was out of their ordinary lifestyle; I say strange, because, for them, it was weird that how come people led different lifestyle than theirs.
And so fancy restaurant bills got a halt, came in budget saving and an inspiration to do something to improve the society, the motivation to contribute to something meaningful thus, “Way To Heaven” was paved.
We are those ‘bunch of vagabonds’, who used to spend late nights out hanging with friends, but this time, we looked closely around and saw many nameless, faceless, bodies sleeping on footpaths, green belts and wherever there was shade. Nonetheless, we were distracted, our indulgences in luxury led to savings of only Rs.700/-, but somehow our balloon to do good wasn’t deflated just yet!! And so began our quest.
On first of Ramazan 2018, with only a budget of Rs.700/, “Way to Heaven” bought its first charity stuff; 80 liters of Tang was made at home and distributed on the streets of Faisalabad at iftar time. Gradually, funds came in, work began to pull some momentum, food was being served on every iftari and by the 30thof Ramazan, “Way to Heaven” had a surplus fund of more than 1.5 lac with them.
The Board of Directors, come, volunteers, aka us- teenage boys, decided to use this fund on arranging the wedding of some poor or needy girl. The hunt for deserving candidate began. And so one was found, right at the corner of our street – our very own cobbler (mochi)! We found out that his daughters’ marriage was getting delayed only because he didn’t have adequate funds. And thus, with blessings of Allah, “Way to Heaven” managed to arrange the whole wedding. Every day we’re growing, every day we are helping people, every day we are paving our “Way to Heaven” and request all who are out there reading to contribute and make way for themselves too.
#ShareToAware
