According to a press release, the library was inaugurated on August 10. The statement said “School’s Principal Mr. Mohammad Amin was very appreciative of their efforts. He was happy about the fact that the school with over 500 students would finally have a library. Dr.Ruth Pfau and Sister Jeanine Genus emphasized the importance of reading. They were full of praise for this young dynamic team and hoped that many more would follow in their footsteps. They were very happy that hundreds of students will benefit from this initiative.”
Zarak Quraishi , Sameer Shehzad Salim, Nireen Shehzad Salim , Saif Quraishi , Daneyal Omar Quraishi and Noor Zoberi found Eternal Hope, a charity and community service organization 7 years ago with coming out to help the earthquake victims.
They represent the youth of our country and they feel that have to serve our nation as role models for other Pakistani youth to emulate.
They actively started working towards ensuring a better future for the under privileged children in our city. Over the course of the next few years, they had many small scale projects. By having stalls at different melas they raised funds and then used that money to purchase stationery and toys for school children. The Garage School was the first school they worked with, distributing goody bags with not only stationery and school supplies but toys as well.
They also went to the National Institute for Children’s Health to give the children stationery and toys. Their next project was with the Gizri School, where they funded the construction of a library.
Recently, they launched their first large scale project, a book drive with McDonald’s details of which follow.
Their inspiration came from their desire to better their city and their country. In their research on how to improve social conditions, they found that communities ranking high in development indices have several factors in common: an abundance of books in public libraries, easy access to books in the community at large and a large number of textbooks per student. Unfortunately, they found that none of these factors existed in our country!
They thought that the most successful way to improve this pitiable state would be to provide books to under-privileged children. In accordance with this plan and philosophy, they approached McDonalds to partner with them and recently they launched a book drive with their help. This was a major leap for them as they were given help and support by the McDonalds Sea view outlet serving as a drop off and collection point for books.
This recently-launched ‘Book Drive Campaign’ will benefit hundreds of children who have little or no access to books and stationary. It will be a win-win situation for all, as literally, heaps of books lying in our homes will be distributed to children who have no access to them. This will be of immense value to a nation that is illiterate in large numbers, and even those who can read or write have little or no access to books. This will encourage us to be empathetic and socially responsible, traits that so critically need to be instilled.
Through this drive these dynamic youth have collected over 3,000 books and are hoping to collect many more as the drive progresses and expands. Once collected, these books are to be distributed to schools for underprivileged children in Pakistan.
